Scientific Realism ('atoms in the void')
- It is the belief that there is a different 'world' beyond our own reality. A sort of, "alternate reality". It's a mixture of common sense and scientific description. For example, the common sense understanding of a table is that it has extension and colour, but the scientific explanation is that it does not actually belong to that world (our perception) as it is "empty" in our perception as there are numerous electric changes rushing through it with great speed.
Phenomenalism ('to be is to be perceived')
- It is based on empiricism, for the fact that phenomenalism states that all knowledge is based on experience. On basic terms, "matter is simple 'the permanent possibility of sensation'", and therefore is the complete opposite of scientific realism as it does not believe in independent realities. How? It offers a counterargument by saying that we cannot know what the world is like independent of our experience of it.
Common-sense Realism ('what you see is what is there')
- It states that the way we view the world mirror the way the world is. However, this is the easier of the three theories to reject, as it has been determined that our sense-organs are not always trustworthy.
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Reason
In order to understand whether perception or reason is more reliable, one must first know the definition of knowledge – "the beliefs or opinions which are proven true with logical evidence and afterwards converted into knowledge". However, since this in my own opinion, I would have to say that reason is more reliable as perception is merely someone's point of view that is used as a process for people to accept reality. An example of this can be seen if a large amount of people might think art is beautiful whilst others may disagree and regard it as meaningless. So, whilst reason leads to one solution, perception leads to various ones that make the way we perceive the world confusing.
Emotion
This is a rather easy
question to answer as (from personal experience) when you're in a good mood
your perception of the world is less dark whilst, on bad days, it becomes
difficult to look beyond what is in front of you. This change of perception is
called the "broaden and build" theory of which states that when a
person is happy their attention zooms out (paying attention to life as a
whole), whilst a sad person will centre on specifics and blow them into
unnecessarily large proportions. Furthermore, a good mood can alter your thought process to what is known as "cognitive control" of which your brain's ability will widen, allowing your perception of the world to go deeper than you normally would.
Ethics
Similar to how emotion affects our perception, it tackles how a person's view of their surroundings is subjective to biases or experiences as everyone makes a conscious decision as to how they wish to interact with the world. Relating back to emotion, good people see the world in a more positive light than bad people as they choose to focus on the good. However, this can be argued as there are bad people in the world (i.e. Trump) that enjoys his life (either due to money, or his wife) and therefore makes bad decisions with his environment in a positive mood. So, this structure of "happy person-good decisions" is not necessarily true. However, relating back to Trump, due to his negative perceptions of the world (i.e. racism towards immigrants), most of his thoughts besides himself are probably negative. Due to this, good people (in their actions) do see the world differently, however this varies from person to person and cannot applied to everyone.
The Arts
By definition, the arts are a an expression of creativity and imagination in order to portray something in life as holding beauty/emotional power. For a long time, the arts has served as a tool to influence people whether it be their opinions on topics or their perception of the world as a whole. In terms of its affect on culture and society, the way in which an artistic piece is displayed can change opinions by instilling values and translating experiences through communicating its beliefs. In modern day art, it is used to voice the politically and/or socially disenfranchised. Therefore, with this much power of influence, can it not be said that art allows us to perceive the world differently? Take an artwork portraying our society as a chess game; this display automatically seeps thoughts into the observer's mind that they are living in a controlled system made with rules and regulations. This artwork is a comment on that, but the reaction from the audience can be particularly influential if shown to a child who's views are innocent.
By definition, the arts are a an expression of creativity and imagination in order to portray something in life as holding beauty/emotional power. For a long time, the arts has served as a tool to influence people whether it be their opinions on topics or their perception of the world as a whole. In terms of its affect on culture and society, the way in which an artistic piece is displayed can change opinions by instilling values and translating experiences through communicating its beliefs. In modern day art, it is used to voice the politically and/or socially disenfranchised. Therefore, with this much power of influence, can it not be said that art allows us to perceive the world differently? Take an artwork portraying our society as a chess game; this display automatically seeps thoughts into the observer's mind that they are living in a controlled system made with rules and regulations. This artwork is a comment on that, but the reaction from the audience can be particularly influential if shown to a child who's views are innocent.
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