Able Questions Part 2!!!!!

According to Abel, what is perception?
According to abel perception is "indeed a task to be accomplished and a problem to be solved." He thinks that perception is what we use to obtain knowledge and to solve a problem. When we see something we can interpret meaning from it by the way we percive it.

What does Abel mean by “seeing as”?
Able means that everything we ‘see’ is based off of the way we perceive it as. So whenever we see something happen our brain takes what we saw and interprets it based off of experiences or biases we may hold. According to Abel we do not truly see something but we see it as our brain perceives it.
To see what is the case, what is required? Please define each term.
Context-the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc.
Inference- The act or process of deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true.
Concepts- A general idea derived or inferred from specific instances or occurrences.
Experience- knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered, or undergone
Interpretation- a mental representation of the meaning or significance of something
What did Nietzsche mean by “the fallacy of the immaculate perception?” How does Psychologist Joseph Jastrow prove this point? When have we done this in class?
Nietzsche means that there is no correct perception of what a person saw, and that one interpretation can exclude all others. Jastrow proves this point by creating the illusion drawing that resembles both a rabbit and a duck. Both interpretations of the drawing are right, but they cannot both be seen at the same time. We did something like this in class with the drawings from the little kids. Because the two groups had two different directions we both came up with different perceptions of the drawings.
What does Abel mean when he writes: “there is no sharp line dividing perception and illusion?”
Abel means that there isn’t an absolute clear difference between perception and illusion, that there is some gray area between the two.
Why is perception selective by nature?
Perception is selective by nature because as humans we are not able to take in every piece of stimuli that is presented around us. We mostly pick up things we are used to, expect to see, believe to see, or want to see. Also the humans brains tend to try to ‘fix’ things that do not appear to be right, which changes how we actually perceive what is going on.
What does Abel mean when he says: “To perceive is to solve a problem?”
What Abel means is that when we perceive what we see we do it in order to put meaning to it. Like If a tree was to randomly fall in the woods you could come to the conclusion that the inside had rotted out, causing it to fall. You may have learned about trees rotting which lead you to come to this conclusion, solving the problem of why the tree fell.
What is the role of social conditioning in determining how things “naturally look?”
Social conditioning is important in how things naturally look. Especially when it comes to art. People have different interpretations of how things ‘naturally look’ when it comes to drawing them out. Also some one can look at a photo or a piece of art that is supposed to look real and get it into their head that this is the way that that thing looks like. Like what happened with Gericault’s Horse Race.
What is significant of the Durer rhinoceros story? How was the influence of convention demonstrated when some tribes were given a photograph?
Durer’s rhinoceros story is significant because it shows how we tend to see what has been told to us as being right, or what we are used to. When Bruce saw actually rhinos he drew a representation of them that was very close to the one done by Durer. He had become so used to Durer’s rhino being an actual rhino that he perceived the real rhinos to look like that. The photographs shown to the tribe showed similar results. These people only know their surroundings as 3D objects. Seeing them in a smaller size and not 3D it did not occur to them that it was an image of something they had seen before, so they just saw it as a bunch of random colors.

How does convention influence perspective drawing?
Convention influences perspective drawing because it is striving to put an element of 3D in it to make it look more realistic.
What does Abel mean when he writes: Believing is seeing? How might this point be seen in the study of natural and the social sciences?
I think what he means that you cannot see something unless you believe you saw something. Like in the discovery of the planet of Venus. Once scientists had began to believe that there could be such a thing they began to realize that they had seen it before.
What does Abel mean by “hearing as…”?
Abel means that we interpreter sounds before we hear the whole word, and use our knowledge of the English language to put it together. Also this lead to the different pronunciation of sounds and to accents, since people are trying to imitate the sounds they hear.