Dimebag wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 11:41 am
When our perception has imperfect information about an object, it will “guess” about what that object is, and present it to us AS that guess.
This is a complete misunderstanding of what perception is. Perception makes no interpretation of anything. All perception is capable of is the direct consciousness of attributes of entities that can be perceived--the color and intensity of the light they produce, reflect, or transmit, what sound waves they produce, whatever chemicals are in the food we taste or air we smell, and whatever kinds of pressure or temperature things we touch have. That is all that is perceived. It is by means of those directly perceived attributes that our ability to identity and think about what is seen, interprets configurations of those perceived attributes as entities and events.
Dimebag wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 11:41 am
Furthermore, sometimes, perception can malfunction, ...
Perception cannot malfunction, because it performs no function. Perception is immediate direct conscious awareness of whatever the neurological system makes available to consciousness at any moment and nothing else.
If there are anomalies in the neurological system what it makes available to be perceived will be different than would be available without those anomalies, but perception itself is of reality exactly as it is, including the state of the neurological system.
Dimebag wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 11:41 am
Please name or describe one such case.
I think like most people you are confusing perception, what is directly seen, hear, felt, tasted, and smelled, with conception, the rational identification and evaluation of what is perceived.
[NOTE: I am not ignoring your discussion of how you believe perception works, but it would take to much explanation to give a fair appraisal of that here. I've actually explained what is wrong with that view in another article, "
Perception." If that does not address your issue here, or you have further questions, I'll try to answer them.]
Dimebag wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 11:41 am
Some examples where perception does not match the real world.
- phantom limb syndrome
- rubber hand illusion
- synesthesia
- psychedelic trips
- temperature perception experiments
- internal voice
- hearing music internally
- dreams
To name a few.
Except none are examples of perception being wrong about the real world.
"phantom limb syndrome," is a correct perception of the behavior of certain nerves that remain active after a limb has been amputated, which is conceptually mistaken for feelings of a limb. The nerves and their behavior are the, "real world," that is perceived.
"rubber hand illusion," is not perceptual at all. It is entirely a, "psychological," phenomenon that takes place (if at all) post perception.
"synesthesia," if it exists at all, is probably not perceptual.
Little is known about how
synesthesia develops. It has been suggested that synesthesia develops during childhood when children are intensively engaged with
abstract concepts for the first time. This hypothesis – referred to as semantic vacuum hypothesis – explains why the most common forms of synesthesia are grapheme–color, spatial sequence and number form. These are usually the first abstract concepts that educational systems require children to learn.
In other words, synesthesia is something resulting from the conceptual level of consciousness which misinterprets what is perceived. But, like all other so-called psychological phenomena, it's validity cannot be established scientifically, because there is no evidence at all for synesthesia except the testimony of those who claim it.
"psychedelic trips," like all perceptual experiences considered illusory, such as voices heard or people seen by those suffering from schizophrenia, are perceptions produced by physical anomalies of the neurological system. Perception always includes the state of an organism (called interoception) as part of its perception of reality as it actually is.
"temperature perception experiments" only prove how accurate perception, taking into account the entire real context of all that is perceived, including the state of the perceiver.
"internal voices" if the one claiming it isn't lying, it is a correct perception of a defective brain behavior, as in schizophrenics.
"hearing music internally" is the same as above. I hear, "music," all the time. It's not actually music, but it is a, "sound," caused by auditory nerve problems, called tinnitus. It is a correct perception or a real phenomenon.
"dreams" are perceptions of perceptual attributes stored in memory, which, when awake are used and organized for all cognitive functions, but when asleep are not under direct conscious control. The random, unorganized recall of perceptual attributes from memory (dreams) are not mistakes about reality, they are real percepts of recalled attributes, which is how we know they are dreams and not direct percepts.
If perception itself were deceptive, none of these things you think invalidate the fidelity of perception could be known. One has to assume real unamputated limbs are perceived as they actually are to call a perception of a limb deceptive, and assume that one's perception of their body parts are correct to call a mistaken belief about a body part a mistake in perception. None of the things you call perceptual illusions could be known if you did know what non-illusory perception is.