May 2026

Moving publicly always has my mind buzzing, I suppose it’s a distraction from the fact that were always too close and uncomfortable. I direct my focus outside the moving machine to not focus on my fellow beings getting off at the designated stops. I live in the densely populated areas, where every few metres there’s a shop or vegetable stand. As we move along I look to those on the outside visiting these little stands and I notice something that was basic but reminded me of information from a prior period of my life. A lady reaches out her hand to pick some tomatoes as the machine drives by and it’s as if she stops mid action or ceases to exist because I’m no longer able to perceive her in that motion. I smile because this instance reminds me of the problems of perception and I think of myself going insane and being preoccupied by what really happens when I’m no longer viewing the world or just the areas that I pass by. They tie me up and put me in a secluded room because I deceive myself as I think that if I in particular do not continue perceiving things then they stop or cease to exist. In my wild mind the world falls apart because I do not continue my gaze at everything around me. I worry for my loved ones because I am not seeing them and so they no longer exist and this makes me very sad. As I said before my mind likes to buzz, it makes the ride home go by a lot quicker but as wild as this scenario seems, it is actually a real philosophical problem. The information from the prior period of my life that I remembered are the concepts or theories of perception or how we view or come to know things under the field of epistemology. Most people just open their eyes and see the trees and other people and its normal sight or vision but the philosophers pondered on how we actually see, what happens when we stop seeing things; do they still exist? Is the material world even real? Such kinds of questions and now I’ll tell you a little about some theories of perception relevant to the scenario in the buzzing mind. There’s perceptual realism which simply put is a view that what we perceive or see or the objects that do exist, exist even when we are not viewing them in that moment for they are able to retain some properties we perceive them as having in themselves. There are some branches on the same and they go into more specifics like: naïve direct realism which talks about how we view objects directly and when we aren’t perceiving them they retain all or some of their properties as we know them as having (they stay existing because of this). Then scientific direct realism which goes into further details on the specific properties that we view or that the objects retain when not being viewed, we won’t go down that rabbit hole for now. On the other hand we have Perceptual Anti Realism which is the view that goes against or is the opposite of perceptual realism and the realm of thought that the hypothetical scenario leans on. It’s a view which put simply says that when we stop viewing an object it stops existing, unless it is being perceived will it remain. Our focus is on perceptual anti-realism so let me tell you about its two branches. The one I found very interesting is Phenomenalism which is the view that when we are not viewing the object or when we go away from it, it doesn’t in entirety stop existing but the idea of it remains (phenomenon to be precise) or it is actually out there existing. It also speaks about how with outside experience there is no external or physical world but rather a collection of sensory experiences (sight, feels, sounds). Isn’t that interesting that we exist as ideas or some intangible essence and kinda only become the entirety of ourselves when perceived? The other branch is Idealism which is the view that when we stop perceiving an object or when we stop being perceived then we sort of stop existing but there is a possibility that we or the objects still exist. So the physical world does not exist on its own outside of consciousness, so things only exist because they are being thought about or perceived. These explanations are wild but that’s how the empiricists believe knowledge comes about, it’s about the sense experience and so we are subject to the same in the way we interact with or view the world. We often don’t think about our existence in a critical sense, we take it for granted that we see how we do or feel how we do or that our external reality is a standard for all existing things. These thoughts often drive me to the metaphysical or supernatural because there seems to be other realms and they apparently exist in this same reality maybe just on another plain and I suppose these views of perception hint to the fact that it is possible that we aren’t perceiving everything as it truly is. But I suppose if you’re like me you rely on God and how he created and sustains all creation/existence and so I continue to exist and see what he allows in my direct field of vision. A philosopher Bishop George Berkeley did struggle with the existence of the material world and he looks at it or arrives at some conclusion through this explanation by Ronald Knox which is expressed through a limerick and I’ll leave you off with that.