Carrie asked:

I am a philosophy student at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Just recently I discovered your
website, and found it to be very informative...so maybe you could help me out. :)

I have two questions (1) "What does perception make us aware of?" and (2) "Are there sense data?"

============

I'll answer No. 2 first, because it is easily disposed of. The term 'sense data' is only a facon de parler
(manner of speaking), which is convenient to us today because we are habituated through I.T. to refer
by this term to unformed packets of potential information. But our senses do not respond to 'data'; the
way they are calibrated or sensitized implies a prior selectiveness, a mode of screening unwanted
impressions, so that the 'data' which actually impinge on the nervous system are more accurately
termed sensa, to distinguish them from all other data which may strike our senses, but are not
registered for one reason or another.

No. 1 is more difficult to handle, because it embroils us in theories of the mind and brain. The term
'perception' implies an evaluation, or judgement, performed by the nervous system, the brain, the
mind, or all three of them to varying degrees. Thus to perceive dangerous heat, you need nerves, but
not necessarily a brain; to perceive a stalking predator you need a brain, but not necessarily a mind.
Finally to perceive a sound uttered by another human being, you need a mind to transform that
percept into a meaning unit.

So perception makes us aware of meaningful conditions in our environment. Over long stretches of
evolutionary passage, organisms in their habitat developed what might be called a delicate and quite
subtle symbiosis of 'give and take'. The environment is given, but changeable; organisms respond to
and in turn influence its shape. In the strict context of your question, however, the best way of
understanding what this give and take amounts is this: that sensa on the whole reflect those
circumstances which are of instantaneous importance to an organism and that accordingly the
senses are tuned to pre-process impressions relevant each to their modality, whereas perception
performs the evaluation by synthesizing them. From this you will understand that sensa are
immediate, without an appreciable time lag between an impingement and feeling it, whereas
perception, owing to its greater complexity, may lag at times considerably behind.

I have left out of my answer the one criterion that perhaps is the real focus of your question. What
does perception mean in human terms? But this cannot be addressed quickly and easily, and in any
case there are many conflicting theories, which I could hardly ignore or attempt to reconcile with each
other. The best advice I can give you, therefore, is to read a relatively small, but very informative and
lightly written book which presupposes no prior study: A History of the Mindby Nicholas Humphrey.
The context of your question is well covered in it and I think you will find it rewarding reading.

Jürgen Lawrenz

Sydney

Well I hope you're not expecting anything like an answer to those questions... they've only been
kicking around for the last 3000 years or so. For some very interesting articles relating to those, take
a look at the Journal of Consciousness Studies site. You can get there through this one:
http://www.imprint.co.uk/. You will find links to enormousresources on these and related questions.

I couldsay something like, 1a) perception makes us aware of qualities, or 1b) perception makes us
aware of things... but you can see, I'm sure, the weaknesses in those responses. I could also say, 2a)
yes, of course... but that is only an epistemologicalquestion, not a metaphysical one, or 2b) yes, of
course, and we make metaphysical distinctions on the basis of clarity. Yes, haha, aren't those
satisfying? They just melt away, don't they.

I'm afraid that in order to even address those questions, you are going to have to have quite a bit of
background... like, say, about 5 more years of reading. Sorry, but I'm serious. Think, for example,
about your terms. Do you really know what "perception" means? Are optical illusions perceptions?
Are hallucinations? Dreams? Can we perceive numbers? What about beauty, is that a perception?
Do we even perceive, say, automobiles? We see an object, let us say, and we knowthat it's an
automobile (is that knowingpart of the perception?)... yes, but what are we perceivingthere? You
begin to see the problems? And I haven't even really addressed your question, just the first term in
which it's posed. There are further implications in the way you've phrased it, which may or may not
have been intentional: "makeus aware"... did you intend that active voice? Perhaps perception
merely allowsawareness, rather than forcing, or creating, it. On the other hand, perhaps there are
extremely active processes involved in perception, processes which include conscious decisions...
what would be the implications, in either case? As I say, you might start at the site above.

Steven Ravett Brown