“the Distinction Between Looking and Seeing, and How Seeing Relates to Words

“The distinction between looking and seeing, and how seeing relates to words

The distinction between looking and seeing, and how seeing relates to words

Upon my initial observation of Berger’s quote, I started to consider various aspects. Firstly, what means to both ‘look’ and ‘see’ the world, as according to Berger “the child looks and recognises before it can speak” (Berger: 1972: front cover).

This extract highlights a distinction between simply looking and then observing, which means that Berger interprets seeing as our process of context and understanding. He elaborates on this point further through his discussion of seeing as a means of establishing “our place in the surrounding world”, “we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it” (Berger: 1972: front cover).

This demonstrates how integral the connections between looking and seeing are to way we communicate with one another and interpret the world. Looking provides us a visual representation, which through knowledge, seeing it assigns word associations to those physical properties, but words are not guaranteed to clearly define every visual experience of the world.

However, in order to understand the distinctions between these concepts, we must first understand the various interpretations and definitions of the words ‘looking’ and ‘seeing’.

If we are to follow the general definitions associated with looking and seeing, ‘looking’ is used to indicate the sense of ‘to look at something for a reason, with an intention’ and ‘seeing’ is used to convey the meaning of ‘to see something that comes within the range of your sight even if you are not intent on looking at it’ (Aron: 2011: online)

However, this interpretation seems limited in that it confines seeing to only existing as a passive action without intention, one which should not have to consciously occur.

In contrast, Bates Lowry in the introduction to his book, "The Visual Experience" notes:...