How Do Our Senses Impact Our Understanding of Reality?

I went to the eye doctor today to finally get contacts. And after struggling to put them in, for about two hours, I finally gave up and left. But this whole process got me thinking a lot about eyes. Because I have astigmatism, I see differently from the average person. But I’m not the only one. There are a multitude of eye abnormalities that dramatically impact the way people see.

And, surely, if the human eye is able to perceive the same external stimulus differently, then it would make sense for the other senses to also vary from person to person.

How people smell, feel, hear, and taste are likely to be dependent on the individual. And if our main senses are largely how we interpret the world around us, then every person is bound to perceive reality in extremely different ways.

And although we have discovered certain “cures” to correct vision to something relatively normal, there’s less of an emphasis on the remaining four senses, causing me to question my own senses and how close to “normal” they truly are.

It’s easy to believe that the way you personally perceive reality is the way everyone else does. But that is just not the case. The thought that my blue is your purple and your green is my red is enough to cause me to question everything about how I personally experience life.

But, just because some sense falls into the “normal” range does not necessarily mean that perception is objective. It could be that the abnormalities are closer to objective. Or maybe objectivity doesn’t exist at all, and the thought that humans could achieve such a feat is a reflection of our collective hubris.