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A central concept within epistemology is perception. |
The term is vaguely defined within psychology. My suggestion, below, is mainly based on some textbooks [Ciccarelli, Goldstein, Gross, Lilienfeld, Schacter]: |
Perception implies that the brain receives simultaneous signals from one sensory organ. The brain compares these with earlier memories and keeps in memory what it estimates as important, useable, new or altered. |
The perception is composed, or synthesised, by several components, e.g. by its duration in time, movement, strength, and dangerousness. The brain creates the experience that it is one unit that is perceived. |
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A perception hence implies a concept formed due to contiguity in time.
Simultaneous perception through several sensory organs, or multimodal perception, e.g. of a large animal that looks like, smells like, and sounds like a horse form a strong belief about the credibility of the perception.
Everybody agrees that a at least great deal of what we judge as reliable arguments ultimately are created through perception. |
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