Terrapin Station wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 10:29 pm
Sculptor wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 9:55 pm
Terrapin Station wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 7:29 pm
How, if we can't observe anything other than mental phenomena?
Take me through your understanding of HOW you perceive things.
Nothing novel. If we're talking about vision, for example, reflected light, for example, hits your eyes, your optic nerve sends information/signals to your brain. At least a subset of the subsequent brain states are conscious perceptual awareness of the external phenomena in question.
Phenomena are not outside. The world is as it is. We make the phenomena.
And you think that you "SEE" what is there? Simple as that. No, what happens is that your two eyes focus a 2D image onto the back of your eyes. Your lens can change the focus to concentrate on different aspects of the "real world". These constantly changing 2D images are someone send serially through the optic nerves where they are continually interpreted and understood as a 3 diminsional world . That is INTERPRETATION. Sometimes we get it wrong. The system is easy enough to fool.
The other thing the brain does is fill in stuff you can't actually see. You interpret 3d objects, you do not see them.
a similar process happens with hearing.
It does not take a moments thought to understand how poor your understanding is.
Take taste for example. What you taste is a representation of chemicals in nature. You do not taste Sodium Chloride, you have a senstation of saltiness. Do I have to spell this out that there is a gap between the sensation of the actuality?
Do I have to run your through the idea of qualia?
What you have described is a child's understanding. You've not taken the trouble to think it through.
Now that I answered that, can you say how we get to claims about how perception works IF we're saying that we can't observe externals?
There are seriously massive naive holes in what you have said. And you end with a strawman.
I did not say
we can't observe externals.
I assume if I talk about Kant and the thing-in-itself you are going to object?