FW: Constraints on PERCEPTION ...

[Bill Shear]

>In fewer words, we know that a honeybee sees something quite different from
>us when looking at a flower.  Their different visual sensitivities register
>lines and patches of "color" that we are oblivious to.  A bee's "reality" is
>different from ours.
>
Not any more.  Instruments that extend our senses can tell us what a bee
sees--or senses.  As for "perception,"  I assume that what you call "red"
is the same as what I call "red" because we are members of the same
species, with the same equipment and part of a society that has agreed to
use that word for that particular wavelength of light.

Further, by measuring the wavelength of what you call red and what I call
red, we can demonstrate that they are in fact the same.

No one would dispute that the umwelt of each animal species is different.
The point is that in each species it has evolved in the survival interests
of that species and so corresponds to at least a fraction of external
reality.  A bee's reality is not different from ours, just another
(overlapping) piece of it, which we can now explore with UV-sensitive
cameras.

This is my last post on this subject, because I think we (especially me)
are straying too far from the subject of the list.

Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
FAX (804)223-6374
email<bills at hsc.edu>