ON THE REALITY OF PERCEPTION

Objects that are believed to be perceptible are in actuality, non-existent. We take the color red for example which is a common color that undoubtedly most people would recognize. People would agree that the color is red and may even agree of the shade of the red (ie: light, dark, etc.), but in reality are actually perceiving this color differently. It is impossible to tell what the other person is actually seeing, since this is opinionated, therefore making perceiving this object impossible. None of these perceptions exist truly, but are made up of an opinion. It is by convention that we see this color as red but in truth we only know this to be “thing” or “nothing”. This brings us to the fact that the color red does not exist as a whole. It may exist to you or to someone else but to each other the same red is not a reality. This applies for all senses of all objects. Democritus argues this in part of his atomist theory: the thought that perceptibles are believed to exist but they do not exist truly, only atoms and void do. Everything exists by convention but in reality, only “thing” and “nothing” exist.