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Why Vision Became The Metaphor For Knowledge
- Vision often became the privileged metaphor for knowledge because many knowledge-related English words derive from visual roots and sight metaphors like "seeing the light" pervade language.
- Ellie and David point out both cultural habit and biological facts (a third of the brain devoted to vision) help explain why vision gets privileged despite critiques about ableism.
Plato Privileges Vision Linguistically But Rejects It Epistemically
- Plato treats senses, including sight, as relative and denies them access to true knowledge, locating knowledge in changeless Forms instead.
- Yet Plato repeatedly uses visual language (idos, 'seen') to describe Forms, showing an enduring fusion of seeing and knowing.
Upanishads Demand Silencing Mind And Senses For Unity
- The Upanishads also deem senses inadequate for ultimate reality but unlike Plato they deny that reason or vision can access that reality; instead they prescribe stilling the five perceptions and the mind.
- Katha Upanishad recommends silencing perceptions and thought to reach a nondual state where separations dissolve.