The Case Against Reality - Dr. Hoffman

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Veritas Aequitas
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Re: The Case Against Reality - Dr. Hoffman

Post by Veritas Aequitas »

commonsense wrote: Mon Dec 30, 2019 9:48 pm In theory, I believe that the universe as I perceive it is a construct of my mind.

In practice, I will always avoid standing in front of a speeding train.

However, one could argue that even the consequences of being struck by a speeding train are constructed.

This raises the question: if I construct reality such that I am dead, will I be able to continue to construct objects in the universe or will I only be able to construct my death?

And what could a construction of death look like?
It is not your sense of 'constructing reality'.
It is also not the reality you perceive as perception.
Thus construction of your death is not relevant in this case.
What may be relevant is humans are constructed to be mortals as a general fact.

It is the reality that emerges and your simultaneous interaction with it, not perceiving that reality.
The perception comes after the emergence.

When you grasp a large piece of rock you will spontaneously feel its physicalness and solidness. That is the inherent human construct of solidness of the rock.
Then, it is followed by a perception of solidness of the rock and other of its qualities.
  • Sometimes a solid piece of rope in the shade could be perceived as a 'snake.'
    Perception is separate issue from the above.
BUT in another level of truth of reality, that piece of rock is 99% space.
Any being that have electron perspective will not enable an emergence of solidness but perhaps emptiness of 99% space.

Therefore what is solidness of a piece of rock is an emergent from the inherent human construct of solidness of the rock.
Thus the solidness of a piece of rock is not an absolute truth, but a truth conditioned upon the process of human evolution.
jayjacobus
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Re: The Case Against Reality - Dr. Hoffman

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Veritas Aequitas wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2019 10:26 am

3. Physical objects do not exist if humans do not observed them, including the pre-existing objects like the moon, sun and the likes.

Physical objects are not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts. The moon, the sun and the like are represented by images created by the brain. But the images cannot be influenced by feelings or opinions. If the physical objects are illusions they are objective illusions. They are not created by feelings or opinions.

An argument can made as to where the illusions come from but wherever they come from are facts. When someone rejects the illusion, does the sun and the moon become facts to that person or must the person think of the sun and the moon as both subjective and objective at the same time? After the illusion argument, is nothing objective any more? But the illusion argument is not objective and must be always be weaker than fact.

When a person thinks about reality as objective he can connect the dots. When someone thinks about illusion, there are no dots.
Veritas Aequitas
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Re: The Case Against Reality - Dr. Hoffman

Post by Veritas Aequitas »

jayjacobus wrote: Tue Dec 31, 2019 5:31 pm
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2019 10:26 am

3. Physical objects do not exist if humans do not observed them, including the pre-existing objects like the moon, sun and the likes.

Physical objects are not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts. The moon, the sun and the like are represented by images created by the brain. But the images cannot be influenced by feelings or opinions. If the physical objects are illusions they are objective illusions. They are not created by feelings or opinions.
As I had mentioned earlier there are two main phases involved, i.e.
  • 1. The emergence of things, e.g. Sun, Moon, etc. upon spontaneous interaction with consciousness which is universally human. These are not created by feelings, emotions or opinions.

    2. The perception of the emergence things as in 1 above, which can be effected by feelings and other circumstances.
Your limitation is when you perceive the Moon, Sun or anything, you have assumed the default, i.e. that they pre-existed as things awaiting discovery and perception.
Point is, there is no pre-existing Moon, Sun per se until there is a universal human interactions that manifest the emergence of an emergent-Sun.

The emergence of what is Sun, Moon, Mars, and things are inherently instinctual, i.e. spontaneous given to you whether you like it or not, nor have other feelings and opinion of it.

The emergence of what is Sun, Moon, and things are subject to instinctual space and time.
In fact, the Sun that you see is not the 'real' Sun, it is always a 9+ minute historical Sun to human on Earth.
Is there a real round Sun as perceived?
Nope! there is no real Sun as perceived but rather what is real in real time is the Sun is merely a cluster of hot matters and gasses burning at hot temperature.

Therefore there is no real-Sun-that-is-perceived, the whole thing is merely a universal human construct.
An argument can made as to where the illusions come from but wherever they come from are facts. When someone rejects the illusion, does the sun and the moon become facts to that person or must the person think of the sun and the moon as both subjective and objective at the same time? After the illusion argument, is nothing objective any more? But the illusion argument is not objective and must be always be weaker than fact.

When a person thinks about reality as objective he can connect the dots. When someone thinks about illusion, there are no dots.
Yes, empirical illusions [human constructed] come from empirical fact [also human constructs].

Note the illusion of a 'larger' Sun during a sunset at the horizon.
Within the above illusion of a larger Sun, there is the fact of The Sun.

But the fact of The Sun as explained above is a 9+ minute old historical fact, i.e. not a fact in real time.
Actually this is another level of illusion of time where you are duped into thinking you are perceiving a real Sun, when in fact what you are perceiving is a historical unreal Sun taking into account that you are only interacting with light waves which effected your retina and visual cortex.

If say, you can take a space craft and reach the Sun's 93 million miles away.
What you see in real time is not a nicely round Sun as observed from Earth.
In this case, you have been duped by an illusion in seeing almost perfect round-Sun when in reality it is not where the surface of the Sun is very turbulent with solar flares thatcan reach hundreds of miles from the surface.
All these facts are facilitated by your inherent human conditions, i.e. they are human constructs of instincts.

Now you tell me, where is the really-real Sun at t0 i.e. in real time?
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Re: The Case Against Reality - Dr. Hoffman

Post by jayjacobus »

I am here and now and the image of the sun is here and now.

Saying that the sun is emergent, then saying that the sun is an illusion which makes the sun emergent is circular and nonsense no matter how many words you put between emergence, the premise, and emergence, the conclusion.
Veritas Aequitas
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Re: The Case Against Reality - Dr. Hoffman

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jayjacobus wrote: Wed Jan 01, 2020 2:47 pm I am here and now and the image of the sun is here and now.

Saying that the sun is emergent, then saying that the sun is an illusion which makes the sun emergent is circular and nonsense no matter how many words you put between emergence, the premise, and emergence, the conclusion.
What you stated above is common sense which all normal human beings will observe as the independent sun during the day time. I agree with that, i.e. a sun that will give me sun burn if I am exposed to the sun for a long time.
That is the emergent sun.

Btw, we are doing philosophy here, thus we have to reflect beyond common sense.

As I had stated the sun that you are looking at during the day time is actually a "false" sun even though "it" can cause one to have sunburn via its light waves.
But the sun is a 9+ minutes old historical sun.

Can you show there is a really-real sun at t1 in real time?
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henry quirk
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common sense & the sun

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https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3-e ... alism.docx

THE TIME-LAG ARGUMENT
It takes time for light waves, or sound waves, or smells, to get from physical objects to our sense organs. For example, it takes 8 minutes for light from the sun to reach the earth. If you look at the sun (not a good idea!), you are actually seeing it as it was 8 minutes ago. If it blew up, you would see it normally for 8 minutes after it had blown up – it wouldn’t even exist anymore, and you’d still see it! Therefore, we could argue, you aren’t seeing it directly.

However, it would be a mistake to think that this shows that what you perceive is a sense-datum of the sun. The ‘image’ you see is not mental but physical, carried in light waves. The light waves exist during those 8 minutes. So if you see the sun indirectly, then it is because you see light waves directly. But then what we perceive immediately is not the sun, but the light from the sun. We can generalise: what we perceive is the physical medium by which we detect physical objects (light waves, sound waves, chemicals for smell and taste). So, we don’t perceive (ordinary) physical objects directly.

Direct realism can reply that this is a confusion between how we perceive and what we perceive. Compare these two pairs of questions:

1.​‘Can you see the lake?’ and ‘Can you see the light reflecting off the lake?’
2.​‘Can you see the paper?’ and ‘Can you see the light reflecting from the paper?’

In (1), we can turn our attention from the lake to the light reflecting off it. So we can talk, literally, about seeing the light. But in (2) there is no difference in what one is supposed to see. To ‘see’ the light that the paper reflects is just to see the paper. In fact, you cannot see the light itself – only the paper. So, direct realism can argue, except in special conditions, we don’t perceive light waves directly and physical objects indirectly. Light waves are part of the story of how we see physical objects.

The time lag involved in how we perceive means we see the physical object as it was a moment before, not as it is now. This means that we literally see (into) the past. We always experience the world as it was a moment ago, or in astronomy, when we look at distant stars and galaxies, we look into the distant past.


The long & short of it: the goddamned sun is real, exists independent of an observer, and is faaaar away.

Hoffman is wrong.

#

"we have to reflect beyond common sense"

No, we don't and we shouldn't. Abandoning common sense has led to all manner of stupid shit bein' adopted by otherwise reasonable human beings.
jayjacobus
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Re: The Case Against Reality - Dr. Hoffman

Post by jayjacobus »

Veritas Aequitas wrote: Thu Jan 02, 2020 2:28 am
jayjacobus wrote: Wed Jan 01, 2020 2:47 pm I am here and now and the image of the sun is here and now.

Saying that the sun is emergent, then saying that the sun is an illusion which makes the sun emergent is circular and nonsense no matter how many words you put between emergence, the premise, and emergence, the conclusion.
What you stated above is common sense which all normal human beings will observe as the independent sun during the day time. I agree with that, i.e. a sun that will give me sun burn if I am exposed to the sun for a long time.
That is the emergent sun.

Btw, we are doing philosophy here, thus we have to reflect beyond common sense.

As I had stated the sun that you are looking at during the day time is actually a "false" sun even though "it" can cause one to have sunburn via its light waves.
But the sun is a 9+ minutes old historical sun.

Can you show there is a really-real sun at t1 in real time?
I think therefore I am does not prove that the sun exists nor do I know what you are all about.
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Re: The Case Against Reality - Dr. Hoffman

Post by Nick_A »

Henry
No, we don't and we shouldn't. Abandoning common sense has led to all manner of stupid shit bein' adopted by otherwise reasonable human beings.
Very true. The disastrous effects of experts have been so thorough that society as a whole doesn't even know what common sense is and associates it with indoctrination and gullibility. A person then is attracted to the form of indoctrination they are taught to respect and call it education. The kid with common sense who sees that the emperor has no clothes stands on the sidelines thinking "who are these idiots?
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Re: The Case Against Reality - Dr. Hoffman

Post by Walker »

Nick_A wrote: Thu Jan 02, 2020 5:25 pm Henry
No, we don't and we shouldn't. Abandoning common sense has led to all manner of stupid shit bein' adopted by otherwise reasonable human beings.
Very true. The disastrous effects of experts have been so thorough that society as a whole doesn't even know what common sense is and associates it with indoctrination and gullibility. A person then is attracted to the form of indoctrination they are taught to respect and call it education. The kid with common sense who sees that the emperor has no clothes stands on the sidelines thinking "who are these idiots?
The fact that con men swindle by appealing to common sense conveniently gets ignored in the passive-aggressive assertion of belief in common sense, which after all, is nothing more than a past collection of randomly acquired prejudices applied to new situations and leading to sales in T-shirts that read: Been there, done that.
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Re: The Case Against Reality - Dr. Hoffman

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Walker

You wrote that common sense consists of randomly acquired prejudices. I have a completely different appreciation for common sense. Common sense for me is the conscious experience of what the senses have in common. We lack common sense because we live out of balance with an emphasis on either thought, emotion or sensation. A person consciously capable of experiencing life with common sense is an extreme rarity. It takes sincere efforts to balance the senses allowing us to impartially think, feel, and sense the same thing necessary for a balanced perspective. When we do we understand what we experience.

For example when a person thinks, feels, and senses cold they understand cold. But how many even distinguish between sensing and feeling cold or even are aware intellectually of what cold is? A person who has acquired commons sense will be able to sense, feel, and intellectually appreciate cold.

You seem to define common sense as imaginary interpretations and I define it as conscious experience of what the senses have in common.
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henry quirk
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For the record: when I promote, or defend...

Post by henry quirk »

...common sense in this site, I'm usually referring to sumthin' much closer to Reid's than to what Walker's lambasting.
Veritas Aequitas
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Re: common sense & the sun

Post by Veritas Aequitas »

henry quirk wrote: Thu Jan 02, 2020 3:07 am https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3-e ... alism.docx

THE TIME-LAG ARGUMENT
It takes time for light waves, or sound waves, or smells, to get from physical objects to our sense organs. For example, it takes 8 minutes for light from the sun to reach the earth. If you look at the sun (not a good idea!), you are actually seeing it as it was 8 minutes ago. If it blew up, you would see it normally for 8 minutes after it had blown up – it wouldn’t even exist anymore, and you’d still see it! Therefore, we could argue, you aren’t seeing it directly.

However, it would be a mistake to think that this shows that what you perceive is a sense-datum of the sun. The ‘image’ you see is not mental but physical, carried in light waves. The light waves exist during those 8 minutes. So if you see the sun indirectly, then it is because you see light waves directly. But then what we perceive immediately is not the sun, but the light from the sun. We can generalise: what we perceive is the physical medium by which we detect physical objects (light waves, sound waves, chemicals for smell and taste). So, we don’t perceive (ordinary) physical objects directly.

Direct realism can reply that this is a confusion between how we perceive and what we perceive. Compare these two pairs of questions:

1.​‘Can you see the lake?’ and ‘Can you see the light reflecting off the lake?’
2.​‘Can you see the paper?’ and ‘Can you see the light reflecting from the paper?’

In (1), we can turn our attention from the lake to the light reflecting off it. So we can talk, literally, about seeing the light. But in (2) there is no difference in what one is supposed to see. To ‘see’ the light that the paper reflects is just to see the paper. In fact, you cannot see the light itself – only the paper. So, direct realism can argue, except in special conditions, we don’t perceive light waves directly and physical objects indirectly. Light waves are part of the story of how we see physical objects.

The time lag involved in how we perceive means we see the physical object as it was a moment before, not as it is now. This means that we literally see (into) the past. We always experience the world as it was a moment ago, or in astronomy, when we look at distant stars and galaxies, we look into the distant past.


The long & short of it: the goddamned sun is real, exists independent of an observer, and is faaaar away.

Hoffman is wrong.
Your views above are very short-sighted.
  • Supposed humanity can see [extraordinary telescope, etc.] what is on a planet-X based on its travelling light waves that reached our retina and Planet-X is two light years away.
    It is observed that Planet-X is comprised of 90% gold.
    So a group of investors put in billions of $$$ to travel to Planet-X to mine those gold.
    When they reached where Planet-X was supposedly located, there is no Planet-X to be found.
    Thus the billion of $$$ is lost and gone because the group of investors were ignorant of the TIME-LAG between what they saw and the reality of what had happened to Planet-X in real time.

    It was learned that Planet-X has already been smashed by a large meteorite to smithereens
    in real time by the time humanity saw the gold. It is just that the light-waves of planet-X destruction had not reached Earth yet.

    Therefore it is very dumb for the group of investors to rely on what they see without taking into account of the TIME-LAG that what they saw could not have existed in real time.
#

"we have to reflect beyond common sense"

No, we don't and we shouldn't. Abandoning common sense has led to all manner of stupid shit bein' adopted by otherwise reasonable human beings.
Your statement is too shallow in this case. I did not propose abandoning 'common sense' where it is relevant.

True, common sense do has its pros but it cannot be relied upon on more matters that are more serious to humanity, e.g. in health, medicine, technology, psychology, etc.

The significant contrast is between knowledge from common sense which is not soundly justified and scientific knowledge which is justified true beliefs.

Science and Common Sense
https://opentextbc.ca/researchmethods/c ... mon-sense/
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henry quirk
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Re: common sense & the sun

Post by henry quirk »

"Therefore it is very dumb for the group of investors to rely on what they see without taking into account of the TIME-LAG that what they saw could not have existed in real time."

How direct realism addresses time lag is the point of my excerpt above, so I'm not seein' how my view is shortsighted. No, my view is spot on.

#

"common sense do has its pros but it cannot be relied upon on more matters that are more serious to humanity"

As I say upthread: when I promote or defend common sense I'm referring to sumthin' much closer to Thomas Reid's than Walker's described collection of randomly acquired prejudices.


Hoffman is wrong.
jayjacobus
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Re: common sense & the sun

Post by jayjacobus »

Veritas Aequitas wrote: Fri Jan 03, 2020 6:47 am
The significant contrast is between knowledge from common sense which is not soundly justified and scientific knowledge which is justified true beliefs.
When you say reality doesn't exist, that has no scientific explanation.
Veritas Aequitas
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Re: common sense & the sun

Post by Veritas Aequitas »

jayjacobus wrote: Fri Jan 03, 2020 4:39 pm
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Fri Jan 03, 2020 6:47 am
The significant contrast is between knowledge from common sense which is not soundly justified and scientific knowledge which is justified true beliefs.
When you say reality doesn't exist, that has no scientific explanation.
This depend on whose definition of 'reality.'
Reality does not exist in this case refer to that of the Philosophical Realist.
In metaphysics, [Philosophical] Realism about a given object is the view that this object exists in reality independently of our conceptual scheme. In philosophical terms, these objects are ontologically independent of someone's conceptual scheme, perceptions, linguistic practices, beliefs, etc.
...
Realism can also be a view about the nature of reality in general, where it claims that the world exists independent of the mind, as opposed to non-realist views (like some forms of skepticism and solipsism, which question our ability to assert the world is independent of our mind). Philosophers who profess realism often claim that truth consists in a correspondence between cognitive representations and reality.[1]

Realists tend to believe that whatever we believe now is only an approximation of reality but that the accuracy and fullness of understanding can be improved.[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_realism
Re your "When you say reality [of the Philosophical Realist] doesn't exist, that has no scientific explanation."

The above is purely philosophical and beyond the Scientific realm, as such there is no need for scientific explanation.

Science do not justify such a philosophical realists' reality but merely assumed such a reality exists.

Science do not focus on reality [philosophical realism] but it merely focus on what is empirically real.
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