The Veil of Perception

17th century philosophers Locke and Bishop both take different standpoints on the issue of matter, and our perception on it.  Locke claimes that how we see and think about things is based on our perception.  Bishop argues that all ideas and perceptions are ones of God. 

I have an example to prove Locke's claim, I think.  This example does not disprove Bishop's however but rather aids Locke's so I'm just going to go with it for now. So. Midst writing this blog, I thought to myself, "Hm. I'm hungry," so I walked into he kitchen and opened the cereal cabinet. Now, my expectations were to find a big yellow box of Pops cereal, the best and most tastiest cereal in the entire world.  I could taste it already.  However as I stood in front of an open cabinet I saw no Pops, only Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops.  I dug in the back of the pantry because I clearly remember there being Pops here just yesterday.  The box was full and I had been the first to open it so I knew there should be more. I frantically began to dig my way toward the back of the pantry, clearing all unappealing cereal out of my way.  I found no Pops. It struck me that my memory of there being Pops was a dream I had last night.

To me, Pops was the object of my perception.  I truly believed that it existed, I was even experiencing salivation and images of actually having a big bowel of Pops in front of me.  But when I realized that there wasn't any, and that it was only a dream, my perception suddenly changed.  The cereal was real, it was existing up until the point where I physically saw that it was not.  And then my realization came soon afterward that it was only a dream.  Even though it did not actually physically exist ever...it did for me, in my perception of it.  For me, it was real and concrete.  But once my perception broke, it did not exist.  What I'm getting at is our perception makes our reality.  I am aware of how cliche that sounds but it's really true.  Just ask my nonexistent bowel of Pops cereal.