Sense Perception (Pat O'Donnell, MJ Manitoba)
by Pat O'Donnell
1. Definitions
1.1. any of the faculties of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch, by which the body perceives an external stimulus.
1.2. awareness or appreciation of or sensitivity to
1.3. reason or purpose; good judgement
2. Questions
2.1. How do our senses work?
2.2. To what extent can we trust our senses?
3. Emotion
3.1. Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part.
3.1.1. Claude Debussy
3.2. Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses.
3.2.1. Lao Tzu
4. Intuition
4.1. All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.
4.2. Reason and intuition are very closely linked
5. Language
5.1. Nothing we use or hear or touch can be expressed in words that equal what is given by the senses.
5.1.1. Hannah Arendt
6. Imagination
6.1. There are some things that are real, that you can see, that you can observe, like the moon, and grass and things. But for ideas to become real, they have to be played on your senses.
6.1.1. Jane Campion
6.2. He is the true enchanter, whose spell operates, not upon the senses, but upon the imagination and the heart.
6.2.1. Washington Irving
7. Application
7.1. Multi - dimensional
7.2. Cross curricular
7.3. Linked to circumstances
7.4. Dependent on time, space, context
8. Human Condition
8.1. Innate Origins
8.2. Difficult to quantify
8.3. Can be flawed or influenced by experiences
8.4. Uniqqness to each case
9. The Dilemma
9.1. Can creates conflict or make coalitions
10. Reason
10.1. The senses are of the earth, the reason stands apart from them in contemplation.
10.1.1. Leonardo DaVinci
10.2. The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.
10.2.1. Napoleon Bonaparte
10.3. Where the senses fail us, reason must step in.
10.3.1. Galileo Galilei
11. Memory
11.1. We are all instruments endowed with feeling and memory. Our senses are so many strings that are struck by surrounding objects and that also frequently strike themselves.
11.1.1. Denis Diderot
12. Faith
12.1. Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.
12.1.1. Blaise Pascal