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Reality as appearance.

Nobody February 27, 2019 at 05:21 9525 views 118 comments
We assume that there is appearances in one hand and in the other hand there is objective medium sourcing these appearances..but what are this so called objective medium but another appearance!.
Notice that what you got in reality is this phenomenal field of sensory perception. You are claiming that there's is stuff behined the scenes like the brain or the atoms ..but what are those but more of the same phenomenal field . Consciousness is not happening inside the brain..the brain is occurring within Consciousness. Phenomenon is not made out of atoms..atoms are phenomenon themselves. You have nothing but subjective appearances..that's the only thing that there is. There is no ultimate ground ..every ground must be grounded in something else forever =endless regress of appearances. This is why "dreams" are the perfect analogy for reality. Appearances with no ground.

Comments (118)

Judaka February 27, 2019 at 05:41 #259656
I would agree fundamentally speaking but exchange this idea of appearances with interpretations. If reality is a dream then it is not a dream as humans experience it but something far more consistent and rule-based. Whether we are living in something like the Matrix or not, pragmatism reigns supreme as the answer because the implications are all the same to the pragmatist and whether we want a good life or a good dream, we must play by the rules.

I think there are certain implications for your understanding which are wise to keep in mind but many interpretations of your idea lead to nothing but pain and disaster. So, is there something you think people should do differently or should think differently as a result of coming to the same understanding you have?
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 05:44 #259657
Yes ofc ..the first application..stop taking life so seriously. Secondly..everything you have ever learned from society is wrong. Third..enjoy life to the fullest and let go..thats what happens when you become lucied in the dream.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 10:17 #259709
Quoting Nobody
We assume that there is appearances in one hand and in the other hand there is objective medium sourcing these appearances..but what are this so called objective medium but another appearance!.


"But what is this so-called objective medium . . . from the reference frame of being a person observing it" do you mean? Because from a different reference frame, for example, the reference frame of the objective medium, how would it be an appearance in the same sense of "appearance"?
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 10:22 #259710
There is only one reference frame. The frame of the observer. The" frame of the objective medium " is an appearance within the frame of the observer. It can't be any other way. Objectivity is a leap of faith.
Please notice right now in your direct experience that the only thing you can ever encounter is this phenomenon appearances..atoms and molecules are also appearances..your materialistic objective world view is nothing but appearance.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 10:24 #259712
Quoting Nobody
There is only one reference frame. The frame of the observer.


What do you count as an empirical support of this?
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 10:25 #259713
Direct experience or first person subjective. Which is the only thing there is.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 10:27 #259714
Quoting Nobody
Direct experience or first person subjective. Which is the only thing there is.


There is direct experience of a lot of different things, including objective things. So that would suggest the opposite of your conclusion.
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 10:32 #259716
No . You never "see" any objective thing. If you perceive it then it is subjective. It is by defention. Examle: if you hold an orange ..the colour..the smell..the touching is your perception which is your direct experience of a perceived object. The actual object is not any of these perceptions..it is the stuff behind the scenes which is sourcing these appearances . But ofcourse there is no such thing as there is not a shred of evidence for an objective world. All you can ever encounter is your subjective experience and nothing else. Even any ideas about something existing behind your subjective experience is also occurring within your subjective experience. Please notice that right now.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 10:41 #259718
Reply to Nobody

There is direct experience of a television set, say. Are you not familiar with this?
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 10:47 #259719
Look..take three persons ..aske them :do you see the sun over there ?
The first one will say:yes I do.
The second one:yes I do.
The third: yes I do.
Scientists call that an objective fact ..the sun exist .
But notice that (the three persons +the sun over there+the scientist's telling you of the objective truth ) is all occurring within your subjective experience!!
It can't be any other way any it will never be.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 10:51 #259720
Reply to Nobody

They're not saying something about people agreeing with "objective fact"

Again, are you saying you're unfamiliar with direct experience of things like TVs?
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 10:53 #259721
No I'm actually not familiar with that.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 10:55 #259723
Reply to Nobody

Interesting, so I'd have to wonder if maybe something unusual is going on with you medically.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 10:56 #259724
In your world, there's only direct experience of perceptions qua perceptions?
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 10:56 #259725
What do you mean by direct experience of tv? I guess you don't mean me watching the tv?!
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 10:57 #259726
There's just a TV. With no experiential phenomenon of it being a perception of a TV.
Mww February 27, 2019 at 10:58 #259727
Reply to Nobody

Fundamentally correct; the human system is internally representative.
Fundamentally incomplete: there must be something external to be represented.

Nobody February 27, 2019 at 10:58 #259728
Impossible. How can you say that if you didn't experience it.
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:00 #259729
Reply to Mww no..why would you assume that?. In your dreams ..what are the external objective stuff that's being represented?!. Literally nothing..but still thers appearances.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:01 #259730
Reply to Nobody

Maybe it's being self-centered. You see everything as you somehow? In my world, there's often just a TV or whatever. It's not a phenomenon of me perceiving a TV. Sometimes I have a phenomenon of me perceiving a TV, especially if something unusual is going on, like it gets blurry, but normally, no.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:02 #259731
To think that there always has to be me perceiving other things in some relation to them, I have to posit the other things, which defeats the argument you're attempting. (Or otherwise experience has to be different than it is in my world, so that it's always experience of perception qua perception or something like that . . . which would make me wonder if something isn't going on medically)
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:03 #259732
Again .give me (or give yourself) a shred of evidence that the "tv" is there when you are not experiencing it directly other than mere faith.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:04 #259733
Reply to Nobody

In my world, the experience is not normally of me watching a TV. There's just the TV.
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:05 #259734
Reply to Terrapin Station you are stuck in the the materialistic world view
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:05 #259735
You can't give me any evidence I know.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:05 #259736
Reply to Nobody
You either have a medical problem or you're stuck in some juvenile theorizing.
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:07 #259737
No. I'm completely sane and mature and I know what I'm talking about. Please if you wanna keep with me in this conversation give me rational arguments to your claims rather than offending me personally when I defeat you. Thanks.
Mww February 27, 2019 at 11:08 #259738
Reply to Nobody

In dreams, that which appears is the contents of consciousness.

In conscious awareness, that which appears are intuitions representing sensory impressions.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:08 #259739
Presumably it seems I'm something your mind is creating? That's the only experience of me?
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:09 #259740
Quoting Mww
In dreams, that which appears is the contents of consciousness.

In conscious awareness, that which appears are intuitions representing sensory impressions


Isn't that theoretical?
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:11 #259741
Reply to Mww the content of consciousness?! Where did it came from? What is the external source for dream appearances?.
Don't tell me the brain. The brain is just another appearance.
Mww February 27, 2019 at 11:12 #259742
Reply to Terrapin Station

Yes.

(Weird. Did you see where the C & P included the time? Made it look like I said “....impressions seconds ago.”
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:13 #259743
Reply to Terrapin Station no "the mind" doesn't create these appearances. The mind is itself an appearance. You might ask " then WHAT is creating it?:?
Literally nothing. Reality is a hallucination. A dream. If you take DMT you will know.
Mww February 27, 2019 at 11:14 #259744
Reply to Nobody

Contents of consciousness are given from the human cognitive system, operating from the brain but are not the brain. Although advocates of modern neurobiology and cognitive neuroscience will shoot me if they find out I said that.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:15 #259745
Reply to Mww

Why would we settle on representationalism as the theory rather than alternatives?
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:15 #259746
And what are "the human cognitive system " if not just another appearance.
What is the ultimate ground of reality?!
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:15 #259748
Reply to Nobody

"Literally nothing is creating it" is the appearance?
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:17 #259749
Reply to Terrapin Station no. It is nothing not a something. Which means it is not created.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:19 #259750
Reply to Nobody

So where is the claim that literally nothing created it coming from if that's not an appearance?
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:21 #259752
Yes. Ofcourse .everything is just appearances. This very statement is appearance.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:22 #259753
Reply to Nobody

But you had just said that it's not an appearance: "no. It is nothing not a something. Which means it is not created."
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:22 #259754
Take LSD or DMT and see for yourself.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:23 #259755
So what does "nothing is creating it" look like?
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:24 #259756
Yes you don't understand. What I mean is that everything without exception (even this paragraph) is appearances with no external objective medium creating it just like dreams.
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:24 #259757
It looks like your dreams .Which is identical to whats happening right now.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:27 #259758
Reply to Nobody

But my dreams look like something, not like nothing creating something.
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:30 #259759
Your dreams are something in a sense that they are appearances. But they came from nothing which means there is no actual substance to them . This experience you are having right now is just another dream.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:33 #259760
Reply to Nobody

You're saying that "they came from nothing" is an appearance. I'm wondering what that appearance looks like. It doesn't look like my dreams, because they look like something, not like "they came from nothing."
Mww February 27, 2019 at 11:36 #259761
Reply to Terrapin Station

Because there are no basketballs in our heads, but we know all about basketballs. The thing we know merely represents the thing we know about.

A suitable alternative isn’t impossible, but it would have to be sufficient to overturn what it’s replacing.
Nobody February 27, 2019 at 11:37 #259762
You don't get . Everything without exception is appearances. Even me saying that . Done with this.
Now..your dreams look like something..fine. But let me ask you :is there an objective external source to your dreams or No? The answer is no. Which means they are something which being sourced by nothing.
Don't tell me the brain..the brain is an appearance.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:48 #259765
Reply to Mww

There's a difference between only being aware of a representation/a mental creation of a basketball and being directly aware of the basketball. The latter doesn't imply that a basketball is literally in your head.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 11:51 #259766
Reply to Nobody

You're rather not understanding because you want the discussion to go in a manner that you've already prepared for. I'm not arguing with you about "nothing creates appearances" being an appearance. I'm asking you what that appearance looks like (or sounds like, or whatever sense is appropriate).
Mww February 27, 2019 at 12:58 #259776
Reply to Terrapin Station

Assuming perception itself to be a passive faculty, appearance is what I am directly aware of. The naturally occurring information impressed on sense as appearance is a different form than the procedural information in the brain that gives representation of the appearance. Even allowing the all-inclusive four fundamental forces, the medium is different, the mechanics are different, yet the results conform to the incidence.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 13:07 #259778
Quoting Mww
The naturally occurring information impressed on sense as appearance is a different form than the procedural information in the brain that gives representation of the appearance.


That's the claim, isn't it? It's not a support of the claim.
Mww February 27, 2019 at 13:14 #259781
Reply to Terrapin Station

Correct. The support is in the theory. Or, the support is the theory. And, as we all know, good theory must be falsifiable.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 13:24 #259787
Quoting Mww
Correct. The support is in the theory. Or, the support is the theory. And, as we all know, good theory must be falsifiable.


You could just as well posit a contradictory theory. Why not believe that one instead?
Pattern-chaser February 27, 2019 at 13:30 #259789
Quoting Nobody
You have nothing but subjective appearances..that's the only thing that there is.


I was with you until this point. You have not even begun to justify this conclusion. Why do you think this is so? What evidence do you have to offer? Or is this just a feeling? [Nothing wrong with that, but say so! :smile: ]
Mww February 27, 2019 at 13:35 #259794
Reply to Terrapin Station

Sure I could so posit, just by negating the tenents of the extant theory. First, I’d have to have a reason for so doing, then I would have to go about doing it, and after all that I would have to derive more satisfaction from doing so, I’d have to learn something, have my mind changed, conventionally speaking.

I haven’t got past having a reason yet, so the rest is moot. Which is merely a blatant cognitive prejudice, to be sure, but I’m ok with that.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 13:37 #259796
Quoting Mww
First, I’d have to have a reason for so doing,


Well, what was the reason for adopting the theory you adopted in the first place?
Mww February 27, 2019 at 14:12 #259803
Reply to Terrapin Station

Two reasons: ego and intelligence. The first for thinking I might actually understand something so incredibly convoluted, and the second for thinking it actually makes sense to me.

It’s just speculative philosophy after all, which means it’s being correct is not a consideration, whereas it’s usefulness might be.
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 14:15 #259804
Quoting Mww
It’s just speculative philosophy after all, which means it’s being correct is not a consideration, whereas it’s usefulness might be.


Interesting. I think it's something we can get correct.
Mww February 27, 2019 at 14:18 #259806
Reply to Terrapin Station

Pretty hard to get philosophy of mind correct, when “mind” itself is rather abstract.

What would we get correct?
Terrapin Station February 27, 2019 at 14:29 #259809
Reply to Mww

"Abstract(ion)" is a term for a specific mental activity we perform--formulating concepts to range over a number of particulars, via generalizing select features of particulars while ignoring unique details.

Mind itself is not that. That's just one thing that minds can do. And ontologically, they're concrete particuilars.

Mind isn't abstract. Minds are a subset of brain structure and function. You can get that correct by realizing this and get it incorrect by believing that minds are something else.
Mww February 27, 2019 at 15:29 #259822
Reply to Terrapin Station

Agreed, in principle. Whatever is going on between the ears is under the auspices of natural law.

That being said, as long as we don’t know how something as apparently yet irrefutably real as an individual subject not yet derivable from natural law, can be present to our attention, and in fact *is* our attention, we are allowed to call the mind an abstraction of brain.

I’ve always thought, we know the brain operates on natural principles, by nameable characteristics, but our internal language is not of those principles or characteristics. One transposes to the other, sure, but, the difference is sufficient to authorize the speculative nature of thought itself. Besides, even if we prove how the brain is responsible for mind, we will still think we are thinking by means of mind. I can’t see any way possible to delete the physical mechanism from that which comes up with “thinking subject” to begin with.
Herg March 03, 2019 at 00:03 #261040
Quoting Nobody
We assume that there is appearances in one hand and in the other hand there is objective medium sourcing these appearances..but what are this so called objective medium but another appearance!.
Notice that what you got in reality is this phenomenal field of sensory perception. You are claiming that there's is stuff behined the scenes like the brain or the atoms ..but what are those but more of the same phenomenal field . Consciousness is not happening inside the brain..the brain is occurring within Consciousness. Phenomenon is not made out of atoms..atoms are phenomenon themselves. You have nothing but subjective appearances..that's the only thing that there is. There is no ultimate ground ..every ground must be grounded in something else forever =endless regress of appearances. This is why "dreams" are the perfect analogy for reality. Appearances with no ground.


This is a category mistake. You are confusing the stuff behind the scenes with our sensory experience of the stuff behind the scenes.

The grain of truth in your view is that the only thing we can be 100% certain of is that we experience appearances rather than what they are appearances of. But it does not follow that what they are appearances of are also appearances. To see this, consider the difference between the properties of the appearance and the properties of what it is an appearance of. Take, say, the top of a square brown wooden table looked at from various distances and angles. We can make two lists of properties, one of the appearance of the tabletop and another of the tabletop itself:

Properties of the appearance of the tabletop
1. Coloured brown
2. Size alters if we move away from or towards the table
3. Shape alters as we change the angle from which we view the table
4. Is continuous, i.e. not made up of discrete parts

Properties of the tabletop
1. Is not coloured, but rather reflects light of particular wavelengths
2. Size is fixed
3. Shape is fixed
4. Is discrete not continuous, because made of molecules.

It is evident that the corresponding properties in each list are mutually exclusive. That shows that the objects of which they are properties cannot be the same object, i.e. the appearance of the tabletop cannot be the same thing as the tabletop. Thus an appearance of a thing is not the same as the thing itself. Nor is the thing itself merely another appearance, as you suggest, because if it were, it would have properties of the sort we find in the first list, rather than, as it actually does, properties of the kind in the second list. Appearances have the sort of properties in my first list; the objects of which they are appearances have the sort of properties in the second. To take your own examples, brains and atoms have properties of the sort in my second list, and therefore are objects, not appearances.

In fact the tabletop is a hypothesised external object. The hypothesis (that there is an externally existing tabletop with the properties in the second list) is a good one, because when coupled with the fact that we experience appearances, it explains why the appearances have the properties in the first list. Without the objective existence of the tabletop, there would be no explanation for the appearance having these properties, i.e. there would be no explanation for our sensory experience being the way it is. This, of course, is the flaw in idealism; by removing the objective world, it removes the most plausible explanation for our experience being as it is.

I hope this is helpful.





leo March 03, 2019 at 10:14 #261087
Quoting Herg
Properties of the tabletop
1. Is not coloured, but rather reflects light of particular wavelengths
2. Size is fixed
3. Shape is fixed
4. Is discrete not continuous, because made of molecules.


Those would be appearances too, within the range of experiences that we use to call imagination. You visualize that object somehow, but you're still involved in the act of visualization.
S March 03, 2019 at 10:36 #261090
Reply to Nobody It doesn't even make sense to say that reality is appearance if you can't say what reality is an appearance of. Appearances must be appearances of something, otherwise you're talking nonsense. Your argument is self-defeating.
S March 03, 2019 at 10:47 #261092
Quoting Nobody
Example: if you hold an orange ..the colour..the smell..the touching is your perception which is your direct experience of a perceived object. The actual object is not any of these perceptions..it is the stuff behind the scenes which is sourcing these appearances . But of course there is no such thing as there is not a shred of evidence for an objective world.


Here's the problem: you were making sense right up until you denied the objectivity necessarily implied in what you said before your denial. If you remove that, then what you said becomes nonsense on stilts. Even a position lacking evidence is better than nonsense. You're not even wrong!

It makes sense to say that there's an object, the orange, that I'm perceiving. If you say that what I'm perceiving is an appearance, then what's it an appearance of? Kicking the can down the road won't help you. You need a fundamental reality, otherwise you're not making any sense.
S March 03, 2019 at 11:01 #261094
Quoting Mww
In conscious awareness, that which appears are intuitions representing sensory impressions.


It's the orange which appears to you a certain way. The orange is not an intuition [i]full stop[/I]. I don't eat intuitions. It's a particular object. An orange. These are what I eat. There must be an orange for it to appear to you a certain way. If you deny the orange, then you cease making sense. If you accept the orange, but say that it's an intuition, then you cease making sense.
S March 03, 2019 at 11:06 #261095
Quoting Terrapin Station
Isn't that theoretical?


It's nonsensical. Literally.
S March 03, 2019 at 11:10 #261096
Quoting Nobody
What is the ultimate ground of reality?!


No, reality is the ultimate ground of everything, including you and your perceptions. You can be a sceptic about what exactly there is beyond your perceptions, what it consists of, and so on, and still be reasonable to some extent. You can't deny that there is anything there at all and still be reasonable, not even close.
S March 03, 2019 at 11:12 #261097
Quoting Nobody
Take LSD or DMT and see for yourself.


:rofl:

Yeah, that's a real good argument. I actually have taken LSD, on multiple occasions, yet I see that you've got it wrong, not right.
S March 03, 2019 at 11:28 #261098
Quoting Nobody
Your dreams are something in a sense that they are appearances. But they came from nothing...


No, they came from me. I am not nothing. And I couldn't exist if I didn't exist in the world. My dreams resemble my experiences, and my experiences are of the world and the many things which make it up, like people and cars, which are subjects and objects. My explanation makes sense and works, yours, if it can even be called that, doesn't and fails. It has problematic gaps, and filling the gaps with literal nonsense won't help you.
Mww March 03, 2019 at 12:48 #261105
Reply to Herg

There is Plato’s ideality of forms, there is Berkeley’s subjective idealism, there is Wolff’s pluralistic ontological idealism, there is Hegel’s Phenomenological idealism, there is Kant’s Transcendental idealism, and a host of other sub-denominations. It is worthy to note that none before Wolff categorized “idealism” as a class of philosophical thought, adding the monist/dualist sub-strata to it, and none before Kant actually admitted to being, or in fact called themselves, one. As well, none but the most extreme branches of it outright denied the existence of an objective material environment, an absolute non-materialism, but rather, idealists varied in their respective rationalities for describing their approach to the form such objectivity would have or would be given.

Nonetheless, there indeed were flaws in most forms of subjective or absolute or immaterial idealism, which is probably why no one seriously considers them as theoretically useful these days. But they do stand in good regard for how far we’ve advanced in our speculative epistemological philosophy.
S March 03, 2019 at 13:56 #261108
Quoting Mww
Two reasons: ego and intelligence. The first for thinking I might actually understand something so incredibly convoluted, and the second for thinking it actually makes sense to me.

It’s just speculative philosophy after all, which means it’s being correct is not a consideration, whereas it’s usefulness might be.


You want to be a special philosophy-type with a special insight? And Kant's philosophy is useful for that?

Even though it fails outside of that little context, where realism and ordinary language philosophy succeed.
S March 03, 2019 at 13:59 #261109
Quoting Herg
This is a category mistake. You are confusing the stuff behind the scenes with our sensory experience of the stuff behind the scenes.


:100:

The mashed is the potato! @Mww

Quoting Herg
Properties of the appearance of the tabletop
1. Coloured brown
2. Size alters if we move away from or towards the table
3. Shape alters as we change the angle from which we view the table
4. Is continuous, i.e. not made up of discrete parts

Properties of the tabletop
1. Is not coloured, but rather reflects light of particular wavelengths
2. Size is fixed
3. Shape is fixed
4. Is discrete not continuous, because made of molecules.

It is evident that the corresponding properties in each list are mutually exclusive. That shows that the objects of which they are properties cannot be the same object, i.e. the appearance of the tabletop cannot be the same thing as the tabletop. Thus an appearance of a thing is not the same as the thing itself. Nor is the thing itself merely another appearance, as you suggest, because if it were, it would have properties of the sort we find in the first list, rather than, as it actually does, properties of the kind in the second list. Appearances have the sort of properties in my first list; the objects of which they are appearances have the sort of properties in the second. To take your own examples, brains and atoms have properties of the sort in my second list, and therefore are objects, not appearances.

In fact the tabletop is a hypothesised external object. The hypothesis (that there is an externally existing tabletop with the properties in the second list) is a good one, because when coupled with the fact that we experience appearances, it explains why the appearances have the properties in the first list. Without the objective existence of the tabletop, there would be no explanation for the appearance having these properties, i.e. there would be no explanation for our sensory experience being the way it is. This, of course, is the flaw in idealism; by removing the objective world, it removes the most plausible explanation for our experience being as it is.

I hope this is helpful.


:clap: :clap: :clap:
Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 17:28 #261135
Reply to Nobody

You're right.

As I've been pointing out, the words "Exist", "There is...", and "Real", when used with objective, absolute, unqualified, noncontextual meaning, are uindefined. People who use those words here haven't been able to say what they mean by them.

Metaphysics and ontology are based on those words, and that's why I don't believe in a metaphysics or ontology.

So yes, for the things of the logically-interdependent realm, there's no objecive reality or existence, because those terms are undefined and have no meaning.

As a truism, a set or system of abstract implications (abstract if-then facts) that are sometimes about eachother, or about the same propositions, and the same hypothetical things, are an inter-referring system of abstract implications.

Such an inter-referring system of course needn't be claimed to be existent or real.

Inevitably, there (in its own context) is such an inter-referring logical system whose structural relations are those of your experience. It's your hypothetical experience-story. Its setting has the structural relations that are those of your surroundings.

Undeniably, there is this physical world in its own context.

Physicist Michael Faraday pointed out that what's observed and known about our physical world consists of logical and mathematical structural-relation, and that there' s no reason to believe that it's other than that. ...no reasons to believe in the "stuff" that the relation is about. That "stuff" is the stuff of metaphysical theory.

Maybe that's why Nisargadatta said that, from the sage's point of view, nothing has ever happened.

Michael Ossipoff

10 Su
1728 UTC
Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 17:41 #261136
Quoting Terrapin Station
There is direct experience of a lot of different things, including objective things. So that would suggest the opposite of your conclusion.


Whatever you know about your physical surroundings is from your experience. Your experience is primary for your physical world and its "objective" things.

Would you like to be the one who tells us what you'd mean by "objective things" or "objective existence"?

Michael Ossipoff

10 Su
1741 UTC
Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 17:51 #261138
Quoting Mww
there indeed were flaws in most forms of subjective or absolute or immaterial idealism,


That's handwaving, unless you can name a flaw (...in subjective idealism itself, not just one version.)

Michael Ossipoff

10 Su
1751 UTC
Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 17:53 #261139
Quoting Herg
This is a category mistake. You are confusing the stuff behind the scenes with our sensory experience of the stuff behind the scenes.


You evidently believe in the "stuff behind the scenes", which, as I said, is the stuff of metaphysical theory.

Michael Ossipoff

10 Su
1753 UTC
S March 03, 2019 at 17:54 #261140
Reply to Michael Ossipoff

You're wrong.

As I've been pointing out, the words "exist", "there is...", and "real", are rarely used non-contextually, and they don't need to be defined in order to be understood. This is self-evident, so doesn't need an argument. But note that the contrary would be absurd. Plenty of people clearly indicate such an understanding when these words are used in conversation. They both implicitly and explicitly confirm that they've understood through what they do and say. Without good reason to suggest otherwise, it's implausible that you're so extraordinarily unique that you are unlike other people who do understand the meaning. Hence, it is more plausible that you're deluded or pretending. But I expect that I'm wasting my breath on you. You'll probably just keep on repeating this copypasta of yours like a spambot.

[I]S

Some nonsense from a calendar that no one cares about.[/I]
Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 17:59 #261141
Quoting S
As I've been pointing out, the words "exist", "there is...", and "real", are rarely used non-contextually


Fine. I'm talking about when they are so used. ...as when people in this thread say that this physical world is objectively existent.


, and they don't need to be defined in order to be understood. This is self-evident, so doesn't need an argument.


We've been over (and over and over) that, in your previous thread that was closed.

Michael Ossipoff

10 Su
1758 UTC




S March 03, 2019 at 18:03 #261143
Quoting Michael Ossipoff
Fine. I'm talking about when they are so used. ...as when people in this thread say that this physical world is objectively existent.


No, that's a context. And people understand what's meant, at least roughly.

Quoting Michael Ossipoff
We've been over (and over and over) that, in your previous thread that was closed.


True, but you keep respamming your copypasta without learning from your mistakes.
Mww March 03, 2019 at 18:03 #261144
Reply to Michael Ossipoff

What’s a po’ boy to do, huh? Hand-waving if he doesn’t, overstating the obvious if he does.

Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 18:05 #261145
Quoting S
No, that's a context.


:D
Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 18:09 #261146
Quoting Mww
What’s a po’ boy to do, huh?


Well, he could try telling us what he means by "Exist", "There is..." or "Real", when he uses those terms with (supposed) absolute, objective, context-less, unqualified meaning.

Michael Ossipoff

10 Su
1808 UTC
S March 03, 2019 at 18:10 #261147
Reply to Michael Ossipoff Wait, what? Nevermind.
S March 03, 2019 at 18:13 #261149
Quoting Michael Ossipoff
Well, he could try telling us what he means by "Exist", "There is..." or "Real", when he uses those terms with (supposed) absolute, objective, context-less, unqualified meaning.


And "photocopier"! Don't forget that one. He must define that term as well. Because I pretend not to understand what he says when he uses that term, and he simply must play along with me.
Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 18:18 #261150

Quoting S
He must define that term as well. Because I pretend not to understand what he says when he uses the word.


I'm not going to repeat my answer to that, which was amply given in your thread that was closed for good reason.

Michael Ossipoff

10 Su
1818 UTC
Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 18:21 #261152
Maybe S. is trying to get this thread closed too, for the same reason? :D
Mww March 03, 2019 at 18:22 #261153
Reply to Michael Ossipoff

Over the years I’ve been accused of over-analyzing the bejesus out of stuff, so I’m pretty sure I make my intentions with respect to those terms either explicit or otherwise contextually obvious. If you know of a opposing instance, remind me of it?

S March 03, 2019 at 18:25 #261154
Quoting Michael Ossipoff
Maybe S. is trying to get this thread closed for the same reason? :D


Until you define all of those words, I have no idea what you're asking. So what you're asking must in fact be meaningless.
Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 18:26 #261155
Quoting Mww
If you know of a opposing instance, remind me of it?


I was just referring to:

Quoting Mww
there indeed were flaws in most forms of subjective or absolute or immaterial idealism,


Yes, it's true that you said "most" and not "all", so maybe my comment wasn't necessary.

Michael Ossipoff

10 Su
1824 UTC



Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 18:39 #261159
Reply to Mww

So really, I was replying to something that you hadn't said.
Mww March 03, 2019 at 18:39 #261160
Reply to Michael Ossipoff

It’s all good. I don’t mind being corrected, should the occassion arise.
Terrapin Station March 03, 2019 at 21:01 #261176
Quoting Michael Ossipoff
Whatever you know about your physical surroundings is from your experience. Your experience is primary for your physical world and its "objective" things.


In order to say that everything that appears is "of my experience," I have to do something theoretical. Phenomenally, many things are not of my experience. They're just doors and computer monitors and sidewalks and so on.
S March 03, 2019 at 21:21 #261181
Quoting Michael Ossipoff
Whatever you know about your physical surroundings is from your experience. Your experience is primary for your physical world and its "objective" things.


That they're objective just means that they don't depend on being experienced in order to exist. Nothing you've said there explicitly contradicts that. Saying that experience is primary suffers from ambiguity. Primary in what sense? What does that mean in this instance? It could mean a number of things. This is ironic for someone who constantly criticises others in this respect.

That I know a whole bunch of things through experience doesn't mean that I don't know that there are rocks in other distant galaxies that I've never experienced. And that one claim, if justified and true, is sufficient to refute any idealism of a kind which denies this.
Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 21:40 #261184
Reply to Terrapin Station

What you know about the physical world, you know from your experience.

From your experience, you can infer other things not directly observed by you, but implied by your experience. Ultimately, you know about the physical world from your experience.

You've experienced articles by or about scientists who reported their discoveries of such things as electrons, quarks, radiation evidently from the Big-Bang, etc.

If you say that there objectively are the physical world and its things, then I'll ask you what you mean by "There objectively is...".

As I said, there are, in their own context, systems of inter-referring abstract implications about propositions about hypothetical things.

I only said "...in their own context". I make no claim about their objective existence or reality.

No one denies that this physical world exists in its own context.

There's one such system of inter-referring abstract implications whose logical structural relations are those of your experience.

If you want to claim that this physical world has a kind of existence that the setting of such a hypothetical experience-story doesn't have, then you'd need to be more specific about that.

If you say that the difference is that this physical world is objectively real and existent, then you should be able to define those terms.

Michael Ossipoff

10 Su
2140 UTC


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Terrapin Station March 03, 2019 at 21:52 #261190
Quoting Michael Ossipoff
What you know about the physical world, you know from your experience.


The point is that to say this, I have to be doing something theoretical.
Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 22:11 #261193
Reply to S


That they're objective just means that they don't depend on being experienced in order to exist.

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…in order to what? :D
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Ok, they’re objectively existent if they exist observer-independently (objectively). You won’t get much argument on that.
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We get what “objective” means, but you didn’t define objective “existence”. (…except in terms of itself).
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Nothing you've said there explicitly contradicts that.

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That’s right, I didn’t contradict that irrelevant truism.
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Saying that experience is primary suffers from ambiguity. Primary in what sense?

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As the basis for all that you know about the physical world. And no, that doesn’t prove that the physical world isn’t objectively existent, whatever that would mean.
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I’ve repeatedly admitted that I can’t prove that Materialism isn’t true, as brute-fact, an unfalisifiable unverifiable metaphysical theory,
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But there’s more to say than that: Your unfalsifiable proposition uses a term that you can’t define , and so it isn’t even validly-expressed.
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So, if you knew what you meant, and could say it, then I can’t, at this time, prove that (whatever it is) it wouldn’t be true.
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(Look, in your closed thread, we agreed to disagree about that, when I acknowledged that you believe that you know what you mean, and agreed to leaves it at that. I hope that you aren’t going to keep this up again until this thread gets closed too, for the same reason.)
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What does that mean in this instance? It could mean a number of things.

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See above.
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That I know a whole bunch of things through experience doesn't mean that I don't know that there are rocks in other distant galaxies that I've never experienced.

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The scientific reports that you’ve experienced imply that there are likely (in the context of your direct and indirect experience) to be rocks in other distant galaxies.
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I’ve already said that your direct observational experience (of scientific reports, in this case) is the basis for your indirect experience of more than you’ve directly observationally experienced.
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Are you going to go into another endless loop?
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Michael Ossipoff
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10 Su
2208 UTC
Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 22:16 #261194
Quoting Terrapin Station
The point is that to say this, I have to be doing something theoretical


Reports of the work of theoretical physicists are part of your direct observational experience too.

Are you yourself doing something theoretical? Of course. You're theorizing about a metaphysics that you can't define.

Michael Ossipoff
10 Su
2217 UTC

Terrapin Station March 03, 2019 at 22:18 #261195
Quoting Michael Ossipoff
Reports of the work of theoretical physicists are part of your direct observational experience too.

Are you yourself doing something theoretical? Of course. You're theorizing about a metaphysics that you can't define.


I'm not sure I understand either of those comments in context.
Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 22:24 #261196
Quoting Terrapin Station
Reports of the work of theoretical physicists are part of your direct observational experience too.

Are you yourself doing something theoretical? Of course. You're theorizing about a metaphysics that you can't define. — Michael Ossipoff


I'm not sure I understand either of those comments in context.


1. I don't know how else to word this: You've directly observationally experienced (in a magazine, a tv show, a book of descriptive physics or astrsonomy, etc.) reports of the work of theoretical physicists.

2. I was referring to my earlier statement that Materiaiists haven't been able to define certain terms that they use when expressing their Materialist metaphysical belief.

...and another earlier statement that the objectively-existent (whatever that means) "stuff" that Materialists believe in is the stuff of metaphysical theory.

If there's a particular word, phrase, sentence term, etc. that you don't understand, then you should feel to specify it.

Michael Ossipoff

10 Su
2224 UTC
Terrapin Station March 03, 2019 at 22:26 #261198
Quoting Michael Ossipoff
1. I don't know how else to word this: You've directly observationally experienced (in a magazine, a tv show, a book of descriptive physics or astrsonomy, etc.) the work of theoretical physicists.


Right. But in context, what does that have to do with anything?

Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 22:31 #261199
Quoting Terrapin Station
Right. But in context, what does that have to do with anything?


Either you or S. was saying or implying that what we hear about the world outside of your direct observational experience means that it objectively exists (whatever that would mean).

Specifically, I was replying to this:

Quoting Terrapin Station
Phenomenally, many things are not of my experience. They're just doors and computer monitors and sidewalks and so on.


If you didn't mean what I thought you meant, then feel free to clarify what else you did mean.

Michael Ossipoff

10 Su
2231 UTC

Michael Ossipoff March 03, 2019 at 22:34 #261200
Reply to Terrapin Station Reply to S

I'll have to resume this discussion tomorrow, because there are household tasks to be done.

Michael Ossipoff

10 Su
2234 UTC
Terrapin Station March 03, 2019 at 22:35 #261201
Quoting Michael Ossipoff
If you didn't mean what I thought you meant, then feel free to clarify what else you did mean.


Some appearances are not of experiences per se. In other words, not everything appears as "this is an experience I'm having." Some appearances are simply of "things" like doors and sidewalks and so on.
Herg March 03, 2019 at 23:20 #261220

Quoting leo
Properties of the tabletop
1. Is not coloured, but rather reflects light of particular wavelengths
2. Size is fixed
3. Shape is fixed
4. Is discrete not continuous, because made of molecules.
— Herg

Those would be appearances too, within the range of experiences that we use to call imagination. You visualize that object somehow, but you're still involved in the act of visualization.

This is a double confusion. First, you're confusing the imagined properties of an imagined object with the actual properties of an actual external object. Second, you're confusing appearance in the imagination with appearance to the senses.
Herg March 03, 2019 at 23:42 #261226

Quoting Michael Ossipoff
Physicist Michael Faraday pointed out that what's observed and known about our physical world consists of logical and mathematical structural-relation, and that there' s no reason to believe that it's other than that. ...no reasons to believe in the "stuff" that the relation is about.

As I said, the reason to believe in the stuff is that it explains why our sensory experience is the way it is. There are other possible explanations (e.g. the Berkelian explanation that God puts these sensory appearances into our minds), but these invariably involve hypothesising the existence of something for which there's no evidence.
S March 03, 2019 at 23:58 #261228
Quoting Michael Ossipoff
We get what “objective” means, but you didn’t define objective “existence”. (…except in terms of itself).


You're kidding, right? Are you ever going to allow yourself to proceed past this disingenuous and feeble excuse not to address the real issue? Or are you going to forever play this game until people just grow tired and ignore you?

Quoting Michael Ossipoff
As the basis for all that you know about the physical world.


But that's not relevant. What makes you think that that's relevant? The topic is not about the basis of our knowledge, but rather where we can take it. You're just missing the point.

Quoting Michael Ossipoff
...there are likely... to be rocks in other distant galaxies.


Yes, that's more or less what I said, minus all of your pointless qualifications which I edited out of the above quote for sake of clarity.

There are rocks in distant galaxies. (That's not implying absolute certainty, so of course it's a matter of likelihood).

Quoting Michael Ossipoff
I’ve already said that your direct observational experience (of scientific reports, in this case) is the basis for your indirect experience of more than you’ve directly observationally experienced.


What a convoluted way of wording things you have. Sheesh.

No, I haven't experienced rocks in different galaxies in any way, shape or form. They're too far away. It would be physically impossible. And I haven't seen a photo of every single rock in every distant galaxy, and even if I had, that would just be an experience of photos, not of rocks. Photos of rocks are obviously not rocks, you'd just be equivocating.
S March 04, 2019 at 00:05 #261230
Quoting Michael Ossipoff
1. I don't know how else to word this: You've directly observationally experienced (in a magazine, a tv show, a book of descriptive physics or astrsonomy, etc.) reports of the work of theoretical physicists.


So what?

Quoting Michael Ossipoff
Either you or S. was saying or implying that what we hear about the world outside of your direct observational experience means that it objectively exists (whatever that would mean).


Not quite "what we hear" - which is a subjective wording - but besides that: yeah, so what? If you can't logically connect the two in the right way, then you don't have an argument.
S March 04, 2019 at 00:09 #261234
Quoting Michael Ossipoff
I'll have to resume this discussion tomorrow, because there are household tasks to be done.


Define, "There are...".

Michael Ossipoff March 04, 2019 at 19:42 #261517
Reply to Terrapin Station


Some appearances are not of experiences per se. In other words, not everything appears as "this is an experience I'm having." Some appearances are simply of "things" like doors and sidewalks and so on.

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Just speaking of conscious experience, if you notice something, you experience it. If you don’t notice it, you don’t experience it. If you notice those doors and sidewalks, that’s experience.
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A car drives by, and I ask you what its license-number was. But you were reading the bumper-sticker, not paying any attention to the license-number. The car was close enough to read the number, and the license-number was in your field-of-view. But you didn’t consciously notice it at all.
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You didn’t consciously experience the license-number.
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You’re the protagonist and center of your life-experience-story. It’s entirely about your experience. That’s the sense in which I meant that experience is primary with respect to our physical world.
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Are all systems of inter-referring abstract implications experience-stories? Of course not. In their own contexts, there are infinitely-many systems of inter-referring abstract facts, infinitely-many of which are far too simple to be an experience-story or physical-world-story.
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Obviously, there are, in their own contexts, Tegmark’s non-subjective MUH Ontic-Structural Realism world-stories too.
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Then why my emphasis on experience-stories? Simply because, as a truism, that’s obviously what we experience. A selfish life-chauvinist bias, of course.
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Your experience can’t be inconsistent or contradictory without mutually inconsistent facts, an impossibility.
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So what you experience must, for one thing, be consistent with your own existence with respect this physical world. For example, because your body is physical, there had to be some physical mechanism for its physical coming-into-being. Not surprisingly, then, you find that have parents, and grandparents. …and a population in which they live and were themselves generated.
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Your experience of what you hear from scientists about the formation of the Earth, solar-system and galaxies, etc. is consistent with your life. People used to say that the Earth is only 6000 years old, but that turned out to not be physically-consistent with our lives, because it was found that the mechanisms theorized to be able to make life, and then humans, wouldn’t have time to operate. And, consistently, the evidence in the rocks supports an older Earth.
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You’ll never find incontrovertible proof that you had no grandparents, because experience can’t be genuinely inconsistent.
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Michael Ossipoff
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11 M
1942 UTC

Terrapin Station March 04, 2019 at 23:37 #261575
Quoting Michael Ossipoff
Just speaking of conscious experience, if you notice something, you experience it.


Not all appearances are of us experiencing something though. Not all appearances are of us, as subjects, experiencing something. I'm just talking about appearances there, not what's really going on.
Michael Ossipoff March 05, 2019 at 01:58 #261591
Reply to Terrapin Station

What would be an example?

Things like that license plate when it's in someone's field-of-vision but they don't notice it?

Michael Ossipoff

11 Tu
0157 UTC




Terrapin Station March 05, 2019 at 11:31 #261748
Reply to Michael Ossipoff

It's easiest to understand if we add theoretical stuff to it. But it's important to remember that the theoretical stuff is just that. So from that perspective, a popular way of accounting for it is to say that it's things we experience/that we're aware of without experiencing/being aware of it being an experience or without there also being an attendant phenomenon of us being an individual who is aware of something, who is in a relation with something else, something not us.

The point is that for these phenomena, to arrive at "well this is really just an experience I'm having" or "this is me experiencing something that's not me, filtering it through my perspectival apparatus, where what I'm really experiencing is a representation that my mind is creating," or anything like that, we have to be doing theoretical work. For these phenomena, the stuff in quotation marks above are not the phenomena that appear. The phenomena that appear are just the sidewalk, just a computer monitor, or whatever.
Michael Ossipoff March 05, 2019 at 18:03 #261809
Reply to Terrapin Station


It's easiest to understand if we add theoretical stuff to it. But it's important to remember that the theoretical stuff is just that.

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I didn’t mean to add anything theoretical. In these matters, I do my best to not theorize anything. That’s why I say that my non-metaphysics isn’t a theory. …just some uncontroversial statements.
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But yes of course there’s a humungous amount of theorizing going on at these forums.
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I use the word “experience” much more broadly than you do. ...encompassing what you mean by those other terms.
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When you say, “experience”, you’re referring to what I’d call “overthinking things”.
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Buddhists and others have pointed out that when people pursue a descriptive or evaluative narrative about an experience, that isn’t the experience—it’s a fabricated substitute that’s about the experience.
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You say something similar in your message, using different terms, and I agree with what you say.
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I agree that that way of living isn’t authentic or desirable.
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Michael Ossipoff
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11 Tu
1803 UTC

Justwandering March 06, 2019 at 05:55 #261944
They say people have a way of living up to your opinion (perception) of them. What is their perception other than the illusion you present? What is your perception other than a reflection?