VI. An Attempt at Closure

I began this essay with a focus on perception, but I have tried to present some more abstract ideas throughout the discussion. While perception is most often considered to be the ability to become aware of something outside oneself, I have attempted to clarify the personal and cultural nature of this process in order to reinforce the idea that our experience of ‘reality’ or ‘the external world’ differs significantly from person to person. This is not a new idea, but I feel its gravity is rarely appreciated. There is an inherent difficulty in attempting to explain how vastly unique our conceptual composition really is, namely the inability to communicate outside one’s own particular mindscape. It is for this reason that I consider personal reflections such as this one worthwhile as part of a larger project to help clarify the way we think as individuals and, thus, how we can best learn to communicate and prosper as a species and a planet.