J.Skyler

About me:

In his 1972 work, Ways of Seeing, John Berger writes, “The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe.” Berger ultimately persuades the reader that all human beings are subjective animals. Frank Conroy’s “Think About It,” and Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” both support the theory that human beings allow judgment to be affected by emotion, by empirical knowledge and by vicarious knowledge.

Although both “The Allegory of the Cave,” and “Think About It,” both support Berger’s argument of subjective truth, they differ in modes of development. While the inhabitant of Socrates’ cave is given greater objectivity through empirical knowledge by the release of his chains and being thrust out into the light of day, Frank Conroy’s objectivity develops out of vicarious knowledge, the things he learns through debate and conversation.

Whether by our own experiences or by the experiences of others, everything we learn we naturally understand through subjective reasoning. Our emotions, our beliefs and our experiences all shape our perception of the world. As John Berger states, “The way we see things is affected by what we know or by what we believe.”