Appearance and Reality: What Can I Know For Certain?

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In life, we know that things are not as they seem. Often time, we question our sense of perception. We wonder what is in the senses that confuse our thoughts or whether our thoughts actually influence our senses to give wrong ideas about reality.

The debate on what is real as against what is not has been in existence since time immemorial. In philosophy, it is majorly a debate between the empiricists and the rationalists (See meaning here).

While the formal lays much emphasis on the importance of senses and why true knowledge can only be gotten from the senses, the latter denies such and maintains that reason and thinking can only furnish us with adequate and infallible knowledge.

Permit me to take you into an analogy used by Plato (a rationalist) on how to attain real knowledge, how human senses can be deceptive and how true reality can be known by reason.

His analogy on the discourse can be found in his Republic where he discussed the 'Allegory of the Cave'. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato told us to imagine prisoners who are tied on their legs, hands and can only look at one place.  There is a fire behind them and a wall in front of them. The fire cast shadows of people walking outside on the wall so all they have been seeing are shadows on the wall. 

This for them has been their reality from birth.

He told us to imagine that a prisoner among them escaped by chance to the world outside the cave and see things as they are. The prisoner, he claims, would see people for what they are, animals for what they are. He would find it difficult to look at the sun because fire has been the source of his light. 

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This prisoner, according to Plato, would see the real things for what they are, different from what he has been seeing 

in the cave. The cave, he argues, is the physical world, the world of appearance, world full of illusion. The outside of the cave, for him, is the real world, the world of forms which is dominated by reason.

The shadows represent the perceptions which rely on senses. The prisoner that escaped represent the journey of a philosopher into the world of reason.

Away from philosophy, those who drive on the highway are familiar with instances where they saw water in front of them (or something that looks like water), and when they got to the spot, the place was dry! Now what is real? What they saw before or what they are actually seeing.

There are cases where we have argued with another person about colour. The first person says he is seeing blue, the second person says it is sky blue. Who is right, who is wrong? These two people are relying on their senses to make a judgement.

We cannot rely on what see, feel, touch and conclude easily. 

As human beings, we are quick in judging people or concluding about another person's life just because of what we observe about them. Do not forget that things are not as they seem. We have seen many cases where a lady looks 'flashy' but she is the brilliant girl in her school.

Do not be carried away by what you see because in reality, appearance is really deceptive. 

There are cases where married couple becomes strangers to one another! They wonder if the other person was someone they thought they knew before marriage. 

As human beings, we fake so many things but like the Yoruba (a tribe in Nigeria) would say 'éefin niwa' -  haracter is like a smoke, you cannot cover it.

Go beyond what you are seeing to make judgement about certain things in life. Do not be carried away by what you see, look inward, look beyond that physical appearance. 

There is greatness in every man and that is the reality about life!

I hope you find this interesting and you are motivated in one way of the other.

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