Cross-sensory consciousness
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Abstract
In his ‘Critique of Pure Reason’, philosopher Immanuel Kant endeavored to revise previously held notions in metaphysics and skeptical empiricism by synthesizing a fundamental framework about the transcendental principles of nature. Emphasizing the limitations of the human mind, Kant proposed there is greater reality past what can be gathered through sensory information; however, we may only understand it as it appears to us.1 If one were born without the ability to perceive using any of the senses, would it negate the existence of an external world? Except for a few radical thinkers, most of us answer ‘yes’ to the hackneyed ‘When a tree falls in the forest...’ question. Using the same logic, how can we be sure that our brains are discerning actual, objective events and not just a speculative idea of them? Is there more to be known that we are normally unaware of? Perception cannot determine reality, only our mental model of it.