(December 21, 2011 at 2:26 am)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote: Identify, with the caveat that we're talking about absolute rather than probabilistic certainty.
Preface all of what follows with "In my view / opinion", because that's all it is, and all it's really worth.
Please don't misunderstand me - empiricism seems to be the best tool that we have to understand the nature of reality. However, there is the underlying assumption that our perception of reality is an accurate representation of the true nature of reality.
Certainly we've created models of reality that have proven to be enormously useful - and for practical purposes, that's good enough. The gap between our perception of reality and the it's true nature certainly isn't something that needs to be filled with anything supernatural.
I'm not a big fan of terms like "in my view/opinion". Facts of reality are independent of anyone's views or opinions. So, if you are stating a fact of reality with the preface "in my opinion", either you are saying that facts are subject to your opinion (which would be wrong) or that what you are stating isn't necessarily a fact of reality. While it is fine as a precautionary measure to hedge yourself against your own mistakes, it comes off as a bit cowardly for not having the strength to stand by your judgment and it grants an opportunity to opposing viewpoints to claim validity where there should have been none.
As far as perception goes, I think the term "perception of reality" is redundant. To perceive is to become aware of "something", that is something that is there. To perceive something that is not there is a contradiction in terms. If you do seem to be perceiving something that is not there, then you are not actually perceiving, you are projecting. These projections can and do affect our models of reality.
I think the better we understand ourselves and our motives, the better we'd be able to identify what part of our model of reality we are projecting and therefore we'd be better able to identify which parts are actual reality and which are projected.
