How does perception impact individual decision making?
Well….do we perceive what we see or see what we perceive? What is the basis for reality? How do we know what we know…the epistemological conundrum.
How we know is directly linked to perception as our perceptions are our interpretations of reality. There is then a correlation between our behavior and our perceptions whether the perceptions are an accurate interpretation of reality or not.
As Greg Boyd is pointing out by referencing Plato and the Timaeus and the error therein, our perceptions or the light we allow in by which we perceive reality is the vital factor in determining our actions or as Jesus correlates it to the health of our body:
“Plato argued that we see not by light entering our eyes (as we now know is the case) but by light proceeding out of our eyes (Timaeus 45b). For Plato, seeing is an active, not a passive, process. Since knowledge was considered to be a kind of seeing, Plato also construed knowing as acting on something rather than being acted upon (Sophist 248-49). I’ve discovered that this mistaken view of seeing and knowing is picked up and defended by a host of Hellenistic philosophers. (As an aside, Jesus seems to have capitalized on this mistaken view of eyesight to illustrate a point [Mt 6:22; Lk 11:34])” (http://www.gregboyd.org/blog/an-ancient-philosophical-mistake-in-the-debate-about-open-theism/).
“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness” (Luke 11:34 TNIV).
So, yes perception is directly related to decision making and put another way – there can be no decision making without perception as reality has to be perceived. The critical question then becomes what it is we are perceiving as that will determine our decisions.
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