Philosophy Now Forum

I think there may be a difference in the meaning of the ways we are using the word 'sense-data', I am not using it as an object of any form. I am simply using the word to mean the data that is incident on the senses. And regarding your question about physical phenomena: we 'know' that what we are a...

Isn't just to describe a 'thing in the universe' already to not agree with the universe? Not necessarily, unless of course you have the only edition of the universe's user manual. The universe is a whole; once we divide it up in a particular way we are already imposing something in our own minds on...

Actually I see that a description 'can' be the truth if it agrees with the object, that indeed the truth of the object is contained within itself. All things in the universe are real, factual, the actuality, the truth of the matter. Mans descriptions of things in the universe can be just as truthfu...

I have no problem with the "sense-data bit". What is your problem with it? As one example; where do they originate? Suppose you 'see' your tree, however actually this is an illusion. Is your sense of the tree still an example of sense data' or not? Some would say yes, others no. The ones ...

What's at issue is the relationship between our perception as such and what it is that we're perceiving. Yes a very good question! And the simple answer is that the relationship is one of pattern identification. You will find details of how this works and how it relates to other aspects of epistemo...

Dontaskme wrote:Where is this Self that everyone seems to be talking about?

You understand 'everyone'. If you do not have an understanding of 'self', what does 'everyone' mean?

Difference is an appearance of The SAME ONE As an example of what I'm pointing to ...Clouds appear in different shapes and colours, and even though the different shapes and colours are known, there is still knowing that the shapes and colour are made up of clouds. So, no matter how the clouds appea...

The experience of 'You' is the happening ...known in the instant one with the knowing. Here now, there is no room for knower and known, ... there is nothing outside this immediate now of ''knowing'' ...'You' do not happen, you are the happening. I sort of agree, but although there may be nothing ou...

Life is happening, but not to an I Can you find anyone/anything making happening happen? Do you make yourself happen? Or do you just happen? Like 'life' in the sense you use it, I do not think the word 'happen' describes anything. Particular things happen and we can say how they come about, and who...

Consciousness is self-evident by association / experience. But this does not relate to a single ''separate self'' who is the ''thinker'' ''knower'' ''experiencer'' or ''doer'' simply because of the infinite regress problem. Life is a happening without doubt, the proof is already evident in the mani...

Me: After all those exchanges, I now have less idea what you think about perception, truth or anything else than I had before we started. That's not at all surprising to me. It helps if: (1) You don't assume that people fit into some template that you're familiar with. Instead, simply listen to wha...

So your claim that perception is 'accurate' is meaningless. What the heck do you take meaning to be? You must think that meaning is something very different than I think it is. After all those exchanges, I now have less idea what you think about perception, truth or anything else than I had before ...

Me: If perception is judged 'accurate' , what are you comparing it too? Ah. What you should ask is this: Is there a method to check if perception is accurate that doesn't involve perception? I did. One way to do that is via mechanical, electronic, etc. instruments, although of course, you need to p...

Maybe I don't know what you're asking. I would basically be defining what accuracy is, though presumably you know this already, which made it curious that you asked in the first place. The standard for accuracy is that the presumably accurate thing gets right, or matches, what it's about. If percep...

Me: 'Accurate' compared to what? Inaccuracies. Very amusing. And what is the standard for accuracy? Me: There are different properties that might be perceived. That in no way implies that perception isn't direct/unmediated. ]A dog does not hear in the way that humans hear, so which is hearing 'accu...