Is Seeing with your eyes an illusion?
When we look out upon the world, doesn’t it seem as though we are seeing it with our eyes? Are we? We can’t claim our eyes aren’t involved, but do they actually do the seeing? Or do they just gather the light reflected off of objects in our visual field? Do they send that information via the optic nerve to our visual cortex? Does the visual cortex then process that information to create an experience of an image? Where is the image? Is it in the brain or the eyes? Isn’t the visual cortex all the way at the back of the brain? As far as it can get from the eyes in the front of our head?
Can we not even trust our own eyes? Do they give us the illusion that we see with them when we are really seeing with our entire visual system?
Isn’t there an old saying that seeing is believing? Or, I’ll believe it when I see it? Does that mean that seeing with our eyes is believing in an illusion?
We are a visually oriented species. So much so that a lot of our metaphors about beliefs have to do with that primary sense. You have views about various topics — maybe a worldview. You may see things differently than I do. When we describe other animals sensory capabilities, we sometimes frame them in terms of seeing. A dog can see with its nose or sense of smell, we might say.
If we are so visually oriented, do we need to rethink our metaphors? If our eyes are leading us to believe the very illusion that we can trust them? Can we trust our eyes? Can we trust our entire visual system? Are there things we can’t see but know are there? Like atoms, molecules and cells? Subatomic particles? Or light that falls outside the range of what we call visible light? Like ultraviolet light or infrared light?
Are there limitations to this sense of sight?
What about limitations to our other senses? We can only hear frequencies from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. What might we be missing outside that range?
Could we ponder similar limitations for our other sensory capabilities?
Maybe this is why so many the rationalists distrusted the senses and the body. Many of them thought only ideas could be real or were real. Were they right? Or were they plagued by a different illusion?
Can we only think to the limits of our own senses?