The Loss Of The Creature By Cole Analysis

Although people use corrective lens or have perfect vision, people do not always truly see. Percy and Cole express their differing beliefs regarding loss of perception and how it is attained in their respective essays, “The Loss of the Creature” and “Seeing Things”. Both authors agree that even though people may have perfect vision, they do not “truly see” things in front of them because their perception is lost and limited by their experiences. However, Percy believes perception is lost because of modern education while Cole believes perception is lost because of human limitations. Regardless of any similarities between the two authors, their disagreements are more dynamic.
Cole and Percy believe that people do not “truly see” things they
Percy is in agreement with Cole and adds that education affects and shapes what people see. Furthermore, Percy argues that people should be free from prepackaged experiences such as modern, institutional education. Cole, on the other hand, commends education and knowledge as the reason people change the way people they perceive things. Percy blames inauthentic perception – not truly seeing - on mass education because individuals are taught the same theories and concepts. He continues to argue that there is no place that fosters independent thinking because all the information is provided by textbook or prepared experiences such as labs. However, Cole argues that becoming educated actually does allow people to think freely and be creative. Because “…every discovery, every enlargement of understanding begins as an imaginative preconception of what the truth might be” (Cole 85), creativity and discoveries are the outcome of people challenging the idea of what they know and learn. For example, people used to believe the world is flat, but the educated Aristotle made an assumption of what the truth might be and concluded the world is round. Using his intellectual knowledge regarding the alignment of stars, Aristotle supported his theory of a spherical world. According to Cole, the more educated people become, the more they understand and change their perception of things based on their knowledge. Cole then argues that
However, Percy argues that because people are removed from the thing they are trying to see so they do not “truly see”. Percy argues that people are removed from the thing they are trying to see because the thing has been “…radically devalued by theory” (Percy 132) and people are not sovereign – free from preconditioned ideas about the thing. As mentioned previously, Percy views education as the root cause. Cole disagrees; she argues that because of human nature, people are limited by their senses of what they can perceive. For example, humans are unable to see gamma rays because it is out of their frequency of light. Cole, however, argues people can indirectly perceive gamma rays because of scientific improvement and technology. Education – the fundamental building block of scientific improvement – allows people to see more than they can with the naked-eye. On the contrary, Percy argues education changes the way people see for the worse. Instead of fully appreciating the subject at hand, students strive to achieve the high remarks and approval of the teacher. Because students strive to achieve high remarks, students are always trying to achieve the approval of the teacher and never “truly seeing” the thing in front of them. Percy argues that people only see what the teacher wants and teaches them to see. Percy argues this limits what people can perceive because people are