Billie J. Cullison

Mrs. Wilhelmus

AP English Language

7 August 2013

How I See It

     Kant was a philosopher who attempted mix reason and perception. He believed that we perceived everything with reasonable preconceptions. These preconceptions being things such as everything happening in a point in time and space. Alberto explains this to Sophie giving her red sunglasses. When she puts them on, everything she perceives is red, but she understands that reasonably everything is not in fact red. This shows how Kant combined reason and perception.

     We can apply this idea to real life. Say upon meeting someone, they act demanding and bossy. They are ordering everyone around and telling them where things go. One would perceive this person as bossy and not someone they want to spend time with. Although, if one applied reason to the situation, one would realize that they are in a theatre and the bossy person is the director, whose job it is to order people around and make decisions. One could also reason that the director may act differently around people outside of the work place.

     In reverse, if someone takes balls out of a bag and the first twelve are red, one can reason that the next one will be red also, but then the person pulled out the thirteenth ball and it is blue. One can see that reason has failed them and perception corrected the incorrect assumption.

     In conclusion, one can see that reason and perception go hand in hand. Reason helps us to perceive things in a clearer light and perception helps us when reason is not correct.