Perspective - Definition and Overview

Perspective is a broad term that has the following distinctive, albeit closely related meanings.

• Perspective (visual) is an aspect of visual perception of space and objects that depends on the point of view from which they are perceived. For example, the parallel lines of a railway track are perceived by the eye as meeting at a distant point.

• Perspective (graphical) as graphic representation of objects perceived by the eye denotes a technique of representing three-dimensional objects on a planar surface with the aim of retaining the illusion of three-dimensional space, i.e., a way to imitate the visual perspective.

• Perspective (cognitive) in theory of cognition is the choice of a context or a reference (or the result of this choice) from which to sense, categorize, measure or codify experience, typically for comparing with another. One may further recognize a number of subtly distinctive meanings, close to those of Point of view, Weltanschauung, paradigm.

The key idea that unifies all these types of perspective is that the human experience is tied closely with the point of view from which the perceiving occurs.