Seeing is believing. Yet optical illusions and acid trips make it clear that what we see is a function of what we think and believe. Might perception and experience be a creative response to the world enabling us to live in a strange and unknowable world? Or do they provide a direct link to reality?
In this Institute of Art and Ideas debate, Miami philosopher Berit Brogaard, metaphysician Hilary Lawson and neuroscientist Karl Friston consider psychedelics and the limits of perception.
This video was produced by The Institute of Art and Ideas and is republished here with permission. It was filmed at HowTheLightGetsIn 2014 alongside 200 other debates and talks, all available for free at IAI TV. Their new podcast, Philosophy for our times, is available here.
Skye C. Cleary PhD MBA is a philosopher and author of How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment (2022), Existentialism and Romantic Love (2015) and co-editor of How to Live a Good Life (2020). She was a MacDowell Fellow (2021), awarded the 2021 Stanford Calderwood Fellowship, and won a New Philosopher magazine Writers’ Award (2017). She teaches at Columbia University and the City College of New York and is former Editor-in-Chief of the APA Blog.
