The glasses through which we see the world.

Our experiences are embedded in a larger whole. That larger whole is made up of our culture, our history, our expectations, our thought patterns. It’s like glasses through which we see the world, glued to our nose. Our glasses are our narrative. Unique. Personalized. 

They have three different filters:

Filter 1 - What’s True

As unique as our glasses might be, they are always in some way connected with other people’s glasses. They are from the same manufacturer, forever bound together. The manufacturer has some sort of objective reality, independent of our glasses’ specific model, like physical properties - the ultimate truth of physics. They have properties that any person can subscribe to. 

Filter 2 - What’s Good

Around the first filter, we agree on abstract properties that define what is good and evil. It’s what turns the objective experience (from filter 1) into emotions. It helps us justify our actions and thoughts. Our second filter is bound to our first filter. From what we perceive as true, we develop an ethics that is deeply embedded in our narrative. Our second filter - what we perceive as good and bad - generates our emotions. 

Filter 3 - What’s Meaningful

The third filter is our “Meaning-Maker.” It filters what’s relevant for is, what’s not, and how relevant it is. Our third filter selects what we care about and to what extend. Our emotions from filter 2 generate our values in filter 3. And our values create narratives of meaning. 

We cannot not experience the world through these glasses. We cannot have personal experiences without these glasses. 

We don’t see the world as it is. We see it as the glasses are. 

This isn’t a bad thing. Our glasses help us to make sense of the world. The trouble only begins when we don’t know that we wear glasses and mistake them for reality. Because when we’re not aware of our glasses, we get shortsighted. Whereas if we do know, we can exercise a little meta-cognition and say, “Hhhm, maybe that other person didn’t buy the same glasses.”