What is perception? How do you differentiate perception with reality?
Answers
When addressing perception and reality, people’s thoughts on the subject always boil down to their answer to this age-old thought experiment. Those who say the tree does make a sound would argue that reality and perception are separate. Those who say the tree does not make a sound would speak to reality and perception being one and the same. Despite these broad concepts, there is an answer: perception and reality are different. We can look to both the meaning we assign these words and to science to find a distinction.
The words themselves are not synonyms. Perception evolved from the early Latin word percipere, which means to understand or grasp. The word has maintained its connotation. Today, the Oxford Dictionary assigns it two definitions: “the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted” and “the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.” In both definitions, the word involves processing an object or event through a filter. The "something" is an entity as it exists in reality, and the filter is either the five senses or the moral outlook used to interpret the reality. Reality, as defined by Oxford Dictionary, is “the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them.” Instead of being the method through which we observe a thing, reality is the nature or truth of this thing. Reality, in plain terms, is the way events actually unfold in the real world. Reality is unaffected by the filters and lenses through which it is observed, and therefore unaffected by a person's perception