Milwaukee Business Daily

What's the difference between "reality" and a person's perception?

is there one true reality? or is each individual's perception their own reality? and if there is one true reality how could you know that since no one person's reality is the same?

Public Comments

1. I love existentialism.
2. That all depends on the individual. I don't know where the quote came from but: "Neurotics build castles in the air. Psychotics live in them. Psychiatrists collect the rent." This illustrates the different levels of reality and perception, in the more extreme cases.
3. The first thing that came to mind was the good old "Is the glass half empty or half full?" In reality, the glass is holding exactly half of it's capacity; but two different people could perceive that as half empty or half full.
4. Inner peace is the only true Reality.
5. Well you see, the problem with this question is that no one person can be correct; that is because with all the different opinions on it, one person might say that reality is what a person percieves, which would kinda countradict itself when a person says that reality just is, that's because if it is what a person percieves and a person percieves that reality is, then doesn't that make reality just plain reality? And it's the same way going with both ways. But if you mean like, if a person runs into a room filled with people, shoots some one and runs out. Then no one can be correct because everyone sees things differently; while one person thinks that the person was a brown haired, blue eyed man, another would think that it was a very tall blonde man. Since that is just how the human mind runs, it is impossible to come up with an actual reality.
6. This sounds like a Philosophy question. Reality is what actually exists. A person's perception is how that reality is interpreted by that person. Unfortunately, one can only base reality on their own perception of it. Obviously, there will be things that exist in reality that are beyond our perception. That's the beauty of expolration. We discover new things all the time.
7. Good point, Social scientists note that the disparity and thus the friction between the two creates tremendous problems for religious institutions and political ideologies. For marriage too.
8. I think, reality is permanent or do not change with time and space, where as perceptions of a person can change with time and space. Because true reality is beyond time and space, so it remains the same everywhere and for everyone.