“We see things not as they are, but as we are”.

In other words we could say this means that we

view reality according to our own views and perspectives. Therefore as we are individuals we

view reality in different subjective ways. Because we are all different it is impossible for us to

see things from the same points of view. In fact, quite often we view things they way we want

to view them, and this can be misleading. The differences in our cultures and personalities as

individuals makes us all different and creates different ways in viewing reality, therefore

reality is always different. Our own personal experiences also make us perceive the world in

different ways.

As we know, all of us grow up in different communities and different cultures. This

creates quite significant differences in our behaviours It is hard to expect for different cultures

to shape people in the same way. Different cultures have different rules to be followed,

different principles, different customs as well as traditions and beliefs. Thus this creates quite

big differences in the behaviours of individual people and makes them percieve different

phenomena differently. Therefore it greatly depends on culture how people act, behave and

judge different things.

Paradigms are another example of the subjective way of viewing reality. They are in

fact influenced by how we want to see reality. The paradigms we have constructed over time

were created because we wanted to seek explanations for different things which we had

trouble. We didn’t know several important things such as the reason for our existence therefore

we kept and still keep seeking for answers to ll these complicated questions. In many cases the

explanations we create are subjective and based on how we want them to look. As it is part of

our human nature to be curious, we don’t like having questions to which we don’t have

answers. This is why our paradigms are an attempt to give us answers to fundamental questions

which are very important to us. Over time different paradigms change as we realize that the

answers we give ourselves are perhaps irrational and misleading therefore we come up with
different and completely new expenations, which are once more aimed to answer our

questions. The paradigms develop and keep changing almost in a pattern because we develop

tehnology and science which can give us new and different answers which seem in many ways

more logical than the previous ones. The answers however as as usual subjective and although

we may have reasons and even evidence for the answers we create they are still very often the

way we want to see them. Therefore we view them “as we are” and as we want them to and not

necessarily the way they really are.

Perhaps the best example to prove this statement is personal experience. Human beings

are unique creatures and although we can find many similarities in many human beings, it is

virtually impossible to find two human beings that are identical, act and behave in the same

way and share the exact same views etc. For this reason reality is viewed by human beings in

different ways because they are all unique individuals. That is why it is impossible to have one

reality, and in fact reality is different for every single person which is why everyone views it in

his/her own way. Personal experiences shape the way we look at the world. Different

situations we are in make us act in different ways and influence our behaviour. For example

one person who has a very successful and happy life obviously views the world in a completely

different way than a person who had a miserable childhood for example, and has a very

unhappy and unsuccessfull life. Another example may be different tragedies that people go

through for example losing a dear person which can also shape them as people and shape their

personalities and ideas.

All of these factors and many others influence people and their behaviours. As a conclusion we

can state that this is caused by the fact that every single human is different which makes it

impossible to create a common definition of reality. Different situations and events, as well as

differences in culture and in general differences in environments and human psychology make

people different and their realities around them completely different. That is why “we see
things not as they are but as we are”.