Sunday, October 16, 2011

Perspective vs Point of View

Perspective: the interrelation in which a subject or its parts are mentally viewed; the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance
Point Of View: a position from which something is considered or evaluated

Perspective can be based on facts or purely on conjecture and opinions, but it is the individual’s attempt to make sense of a subject or the world as a whole. It can be assembled from opinions, beliefs, and observations. This differs from point of view in that, with point of view, one can shift one’s relationship with an event or object and still hold the same opinions. What one sees or thinks at any moment comes from a point of view. How one understands it in relationship to other objects or ideas is one’s perspective.

Now let me take you through my thought process. When I stood on the rooftop of my house and observed the sun in mornings and evenings, I said, “The sun rises in the East and sets in the West”. If I were a little away from the earth say somewhere on the moon, then I would have said, “Earth is something like a huge ball that rotates about its own axis which creates the impression of an apparent movement of the sun”. Now if I were further away say a little away from our solar system, I would have said, “Hey look, earth is one of those many balls that not only rotates about its own axis but also revolves around a huge ball of fire that we know as sun”. This is an example of how perspectives change when the point of view is changed. A point on a piece of paper when viewed through naked eye may be seen as a circle when viewed through a lens and if viewed through a microscope so many other new perspectives may emerge.