User:KYPark/Contrast

Contrast effect

 * Contrast effect

Overview
Judging from the man-made contrast effect, we are probably destined (or born and grown) to exaggerate the reality as far as we are to make it clearer in sight. This destiny of antinomy may be the primary seat or start of our cognitive biases and prejudices.

We may not directly access but indirectly assess the exact reality in itself, by virtue of science that goes beyond common sense and everyday language. Thus, the exact reality after assessment, hence not immediately mediated to  the "symbol" (project, text or narration)  may not be an adequate level of abstraction for  the "reference" (subject, thought or ideation) and  the "referent" (object, reality or situation)  in the triangle of reference (Ogden & Richards 1923).

The object or scene is seen not fully truthful but faithful to the subject. That is, the seer sees the seen more or less positively or subjectively rather than just passively or objectively. Simply speaking, the seer is the seen, the observer is the observed, or the "reference" (subject) is the "referent" (object).

So selfish is the self or Cartesian ego in viewing the world. Then, so ignorant is science or "objective knowledge" that is "knowledge without a knowing subject" (Popper 1972) that would logically positively ignore or exclude such selfishness or subjectivity varying from context to context. The scene may not so much match with the design of the scenario as with the subject basically making sense of the sign of the object, making a sharper contrast of the seen scene than the reality.

The "Metaphysics of Quality" (Pirsig 1974) was proposed as: "a better lens through which to view reality than the traditional dualistic subjective/objective mindset found in the West."  Pirsig notes that  "the subject-object metaphysics have distanced subjects from objects in places where they are inexorably linked." 

The dictum "Meanings just ain't in the head" (Putnam 1975) was to argue for objectivity and against subjectivity, along the axis of Word and Object (Quine 1960).

Meanwhile, Sociobiology (Wilson 1975) was a breakthrough, The Selfish Gene (Dawkins 1976) was another, and Person and Object (Chisholm 1976) was still another.

Logic
"Snow is white" is true, if and only if snow is white.

"The left quadrants are lighter" is true, if and only if the left quadrants are lighter.

"The left quadrants are lighter" is true, if and only if not only they look lighter but also they are lighter indeed.

But the left quadrants are not lighter than the right indeed, however light they may look.

Simple contrast
{| align=center cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 style="border:1px solid silver; padding:3px; font-size:11px; line-height: 1.3em;" ! bgcolor=black height=100 width=100 | ! bgcolor=silver height=100 width=100 |

! bgcolor=#f0f0f0 height=100 width=100 |
 * colspan=3 align=center | Images in HTML
 * colspan=3 | The gray square within the black looks lighter than that within the silver, while both gray shades measure exactly the same.
 * }
 * colspan=3 | The gray square within the black looks lighter than that within the silver, while both gray shades measure exactly the same.
 * }