Perception as a Mental
Construction
We see either a vase or two
profiles, depending on how we
organize the visual pattern.

    Initially, the camera theory
seems a congenial explanation
of why we see the world as we
do. It seems to fit so well with
our tendency to presume that
our visual perceptions, as well
as our perceptions based on our
other senses, are direct
recordings of reality.
Philosophers refer to the belief
or unconscious assumption
that the world that we perceive
is identical with a real world
that exists independent of our
experience of it as naive
realism. If that real world is
simply identical with the world
that we perceive, it is
understandable why one might
think that all we need do to
perceive it is to take a picture
of it. To understand perception,
however, we must discard this
assumption. Only by doing so
can we appreciate that the
mind does not simply record an
exact image of the world but
creates its own "picture."