1. I agree with Ebert. His argument about truth and reality is that reality is subjective
and the truth is based on human interpretation: it means that truth is different in people
since they have different perspective or interpretation from others. This does not apply
to mathematics because there is only one answer: “1+1=2” and “5*6=30” no matter
how much people try.
However, when people look into an event, it is likely that people can not fully agree
on what they think has happened. As the theory, “distinguish reality from appearance”,
we may be misinterpreting, failing to notice all details of an event and misremembering
what we have seen. This theory claims that we can not abundantly believe what we see
because perception can influence the way we see reality and thus what we see might not
be the actual reality.
For example, in Socrates’ Allegory of the Cave, to anyone go inside the cave and
look at people who are chained in the cave, those chained people look like they are just
in the cave; however, for those who are chained, the cave is the reality.Therefore, a truth
would be different in each of us because truth depends on how we perceive things.
Ebert’s idea can be seen when he analyzed a film, “Rashomon(羅生門)” by a
Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa, saying, “Film cameras are admirably literal, and
faithfully record everything they are pointed at. Because they are usually pointed at real
things, we usually think we can believe what we see.” In this quote, Ebert explains that
people often think that what they are seeing is reality and there is no other world exists.
Therefore, I agree with Ebert idea because people see events differently due to their
own perspective, and thus truth is strongly associated with perception and reality is very
subjective.