4.1: Perception and Reasoning
- Page ID
- 95026
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Perception is related to reasoning in several important ways.
- Our reasoning is often based on premises that describe what we see or hear (our perceptions). Furthermore, such premises are usually thought to be especially secure and trustworthy.
- Perception requires us to go beyond the information given to us by the surrounding environment. This leap beyond the incoming information involves something very much like reasoning or inference.
- This perceptual inference can be influenced by the context, our expectations, and even our biases, desires, and self-interest. These are the very same things that often lead to faulty reasoning.
- Since perception is susceptible to various sorts of errors, we need critical reasoning to evaluate claims about what we (and others) perceive.
Reasoning must begin with something, and we can trace many of our beliefs back to perception – to information we acquired from our environment. Perception is the interface between our minds and the world. So, by starting with perception, we begin at the beginning. But we will also find that many of the things we learn about perception apply, with modest changes, to many aspects of reasoning.