What we see is not the truth, bur rather our interpretation and distortion as our imagination fuses with our conception of reality. We transform the world around us, give meanings to abstractions, and find order in a world programmed by disorder – chaos. We are prone to chaos, to nature, to the forces that influences and envelops reality. We conceptualize these omnipotent forces through our usages of symbols – to create an understandable world through abstractions – in order to explain what these forces are.
Trying to find a single definition for chaos is impossible as chaos is the foundation of human knowledge and influences the creation of ideas, of thoughts and of intelligence. However, if we conceptualize reality through abstractions, are we denizens of reality or denizens of a realm of abstractions? Lewis Thomas, in his essay “Crickets, Bats, Cats & Chaos,” defines chaos as “total unpredictability and randomness” that nevertheless occurs when “when any complex, dynamic system is perturbed by a small uncertainty . . . [results in] an amplification of that disturbance and spread of unpredictable, random behavior throughout the whole system” (492). It is the apparent randomness, compilations of thoughts and sequences, which results …show more content…
We distort and interpret in multiple frames, influenced by our culture’s values, influencing our perceptions and sense of reality. Langer implies that have to be aware of our biases and perspectives, as our awareness is merely a result of our conception, “which underlies the human faculties of abstraction and imagination” (528). While signs are related to what they signify and contribute to the natural world, symbols are abstractions related to their referents, allowing their meanings to be framed by different interpretations, susceptible to change. From our perceptions, our minds trigger chaotic sequences of thoughts and ideas, in