Philosophy of Perception

Have you seen this? This takes synesthesia to a whole new level! Enjoy!

The question of "does time pass" or what are the qualities of time passing is extremely interesting. In order to start looking at that concept time first has to be divided into "A Theory" and "B Theory". A theory states that past, present, and future do exist and time passes as it flows between them. B theory states there is no such thing as the past, present, and future or the passage of time and all time exists equally.  A philosopher by the name of Simon Prosser has very interesting insight on the passage of time. He asks the question, "which one of your experiences is the experience of time passing?" This is interesting to think about, because for me and for everyone else you cannot pin point this experience. This is because experience does not happen all at once. He talks about a theory called the uniqueness constraint, which is that each one of your experiences matches up to some unique object in the world. So when you think of a banana

I was listening to NPR on my drive home from work today and heard a segment on color. They talked about a lot the same things we've covered in class regarding color and perception. Check it out. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/11/10/361219912/if-the-same-shade-looks-both-yellow-and-gray-whats-color

I recently re-watched a TED.com talk by ethnobotanist, Wade Davis ( LINK ). The talk is regarding endangered cultures and might not directly address perception, but Davis gives us a glimpse into how other cultures have a different way of being as a result of their, often, unique way perceiving. Starting at 9 minutes 45 seconds is where I really pay attention to how perception has impacted these endangered cultures.

The first 4 minutes or so of the attached interview with Oliver Sacks deal with olfactory sense.  It appears to address, at least indirectly, the Object Recognition Model (ORM) - smelling individual buildings, etc.. The more interesting question it raises though (at least from my perspective) is what happens when any one of the senses goes outside of the sensory balance boundary lines.  Somewhat like when a blind person's other senses become stronger to compensate somewhat for the loss of another sense but in a much more unbalanced fashion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU36JbnH-b8

great book. olfactory heaven.