Josaphine asked:

I'm a student in Thailand and I was wondering if you could help me with the question: "In order to find
out how things really are, one must understand the filters through which one perceives the world.
Discuss and evaluate this claim." I'm not too sure as to what they mean by 'filters.'

and Nazirrajput asked:

"In order to find out how things really are, one must understand the filters through which one
perceives the world." Discuss and evaluate this claim.

and Christian asked:

I am of the belief that every person has a certain type of filter and that depending on this filter we
perceive the world differently. Is there any philosophical text or quotes that can back this theory up?

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

"Filter" could mean anything from necessary structures of cognition (Kant) to physiological differences
(e.g. human eyes and dog's eyes) to social and cultural conditions (e.g. differences in upbringing,
different practices in different societies). In one sense it is obvious that all of us perceive the world
differently. No two people's background and situation in the world is entirely identical. We all have our
own perspective on the world. But the question is 1) How far these differences are significant, and
precisely which factors are significant, and in what circumstances? 2) Is there such a thing as "how
things really are" (e.g. Nietzsche would say that all we have are perspectives and there is nothing
"behind" or "beyond" the possible ways in which the world might appear to human beings (but this is
not a relativism, he does not say that anything goes).

Ultimately, I don't think that the world filter is very helpful, because it implies that there is or can be
something like pure perception or a god's eye view of the world and a real world independent of any
possible perspective on it but this seems to me to be the very question at issue.

Alya Diarova