Recognizing perspective

A Rorschach blot. What you see depends on your individual perspective.

If I were to take the Rorschach psychological test and give my perception of what I see when I look at the inkblots, my perspective of those little images might be different when compared to someone else’s. For example, when I look at the image,  I might see a butterfly or another insect. Another person might see a face. So, what is perspective and how does it relate to creating an argument?

Perspective is born from your prior knowledge and all the things you’ve experienced.

Grounded in your lived experience, perspective filters how you approach an argument or a claim. To see how much perspective can affect an argument, think of a favorite movie or TV show with a lot of characters. Then choose one of the following statements and imagine what each character would have to say about the statement.

• The love of money is the root of all evil.
• Human beings are generally good.
• It’s better to be feared than to be loved.

Clearly, Cersei Lannister, the villainous queen in Game of Thrones, would react to these statements differently than the honorable Jon Snow. How would the main characters in Scandal evaluate these statements?  Because they’re scripted to have clear motivation, fictional characters make it easy to see differences in perspective, and often to attribute those differences to varying experiences.

Understanding your perspective means taking stock of your prior knowledge, experiences, and priorities.

By evaluating your own particular perspective, you make it possible to do the research that only you can do. What kinds of research questions can best capture your unique way of seeing the world?

Factoring in perspective is also a crucial step in thinking critically about a claim or argument. Asking critical questions about our own perspective allows us to strengthen our arguments and find new depths of analysis:

• How do I know what I know about this?
• If I had a different experience or perspective, how might I see it differently?
• What don’t I see? Am I taking anything for granted that might deserve a closer look?

When reading or evaluating an argument, it’s also important to consider the perspective from which the argument is made. This can not only help us understand why a particular person might make a particular claim, but it can also reveal good starting points for critical analysis:

• Who is making this claim? Where are they coming from?
• What kinds of experiences contribute to their perspective on this issue?
• Would a different perspective—maybe my own perspective—reveal gaps or contradictions in the argument?

Perspective and Identity

Experts often start with the most basic categories of identity when analyzing perspective: race, class, and gender. These aspects of identity help us make sense of the world (e.g. by classifying individuals into groups based on biological makeup and socioeconomic status) and also shape ideologies. For instance, growing up as a Black American in Chicago most likely gives an individual a different perspective from a white American growing up in rural Virginia.