Do You See What I See?

Objective perception means perceiving reality, all that confronts our awareness, as it is. It is the process of seeing things as they are, rather than seeing them from a certain point of view or position. With the constant invasion of the news and media individuals encounter on a daily basis it is nearly impossible to form a non-objective view on any situation. Socrates believed that only through knowledge of the self is it possible to come to a truly non-objective understanding of the truth. However, the first step to understanding the self is knowledge of the subjectivities, or biases, that one has. This is the “admitting you have a problem” part of understanding the self.
Our subjective views are formed by a number experiences both personal and observed. If a student in a class sees a professor reprimand another student in the class for text messaging, it is natural for the student watching the interaction to come to the belief that that particular professor dislikes when students text message in his or her class. However, if after witnessing the interaction the student starts to believe that that professor is mean and unreasonable then the student would be taking a subjective view on the situation. Through, the acceptance of this subjective view the student has already limited him or herself. By letting our subjective thoughts control our perception of the world one limits themselves to only accepting the negative. Subjective thoughts are controlled mainly by our feelings and emotions. The student saw the professor reprimand another student. The observing student can understand the feeling of embarrassment the other student is feeling so naturally the student sides with the feeling to which they can relate. Since the student has never viewed the situation through the eyes of the teacher it is more difficult for him to understand that the action made by the student was inappropriate.
By accepting a more objective view of the world it is easier to understand and relate to others. The ability to separate ones personal feelings from reality is not an easily learned or accepted skill. This is because as humans we are controlled by our emotions. This is the one element of human understanding that makes of virtually impossible for most people to take a non-objective look at the world them. Objective perception means pure perception, free from all positions, bias, filters, conflicts, and intentions. It observes whatever it sees without any obscuration or intermediacy, so one can see it just the way it is. It is the purest form of acceptance.