One of the key theories of Marshall McLuhan is that technology and the way we relate to and view technology shape our way of thinking about the world. In his discussion of phenomenology, David Abram suggests something similar in that he finds that language shapes how we view the world. Both see a connection between our subjective perception and the objective world we perceive. Both would also agree that our perceptions are neither completely subjective or completely objective. We might think they are subjective, but McLuhan says we are shaped by the technologies we use and by the way those technologies extend our perceptions outside the body. Abram follows the phenomenology of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty and accepts the notion that perception is participation. If this idea is extended to consciousness as such, it could lead to the conception of the all encompassing interconnected consciousness, which McLuhan also discusses as he finds that our technologies link us in unforeseen ways. However, McLuhan has a very different conception of what is the cause and what the effect in terms of changes in perception--Abram emphasizes everyday perception as the primary perception, while McLuhan sees such perception as completely altered by technological potential. We can see how both theories might apply to the cool medium of the printed word in Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451.
Abram's approach is part of a continuing argument about whether objective truth is even possible, and Husserl in particular began by questioning the supposed objective truth possible in science. This could also be seen as part of an even older argument over whether the mind can perceive truth or only sensory, and thus untrustworthy, inputs. The idea of sense-certainty refers to the thought that the senses provide us with immediate consciousness of an object. The usual conception is that the senses provide us with sensations that are construed as forms ...