[From Rick Marken (2006.08.28.1830)]
Martin Taylor (2006.08.28.20.56)
[From Rick Marken (2006.08.28.1600)]
So what is a perceptual illusion?
Consider how you would discover that a perception is an illusion. You perceive something else that "ought" to have some relation to the original perception...
So, one of them (or both) must be what we call an illusion.
Right. But we always settle on one as the illusory perception. Why's that?
People make fun of Bishop Berkeley for thinking he proved the existence of a rock by kicking it.
It was actually Samuel Johnson who kicked the rock in an effort to prove his incorrect understanding of Berkeley's position, which was not that reality didn't exist (pure solipsism) but that it did exist as a God's perception: And that's why the tree will continue to be, since observed by yours faithfully, God.
Yours faithfully
Rick
···
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Richard S. Marken Consulting
marken@mindreadings.com
Home 310 474-0313
Cell 310 729-1400
[Martin Taylor 2006.08.28.21.55]
[From Rick Marken (2006.08.28.1830)]
Martin Taylor (2006.08.28.20.56)
[From Rick Marken (2006.08.28.1600)]
So what is a perceptual illusion?
Consider how you would discover that a perception is an illusion. You perceive something else that "ought" to have some relation to the original perception...
So, one of them (or both) must be what we call an illusion.
Right. But we always settle on one as the illusory perception. Why's that?
People make fun of Bishop Berkeley for thinking he proved the existence of a rock by kicking it.
It was actually Samuel Johnson who kicked the rock in an effort to prove his incorrect understanding of Berkeley's position,
I said most of my ideas were illusions!
As for why we choose one perception rather than another to be considered the illusory one, my guess would be that perceptions seldom occur in isolation from others. Rather, any one kind of perception occurs in a context that is usually familiar. Lots of different perceptions conform to each other, and if one doesn't, it's likely to be the illusory one, rather than the whole cluster than make sense together. The ruler doesn't usually seem to change from being straight to being bent when you move it from place to place, but on this one occasion, it aligns itself with a line that seemed bent before you put the ruller down beside it. Now the line seems straight, and lines on paper don't usually move around on the paper when you put something else on the sheet. So, there's a problem, which is resolved in the simplest way by assuming that the line doesn't move, the ruler doesn't gt bent, and both are straight, but the earlier perception of the line's being bent was an illusion.
The problem comes when there are multiple clusters of mutually supportive perceptions, but the clusters aren't mutually consistent. That happens a .ot in social perceptions, doesn't it!
Martin
[From Mike Acree (2006.08.29.0855 PDT)]
Bill Powers (2006.08.29.0715 MDT)--
The movers arrive today. . . .
Why am I not happy with that?
Guess you'll have your cake on the run. Hope it's a happy 78th.
Mike
[From Bill Powers (2006.08.29.1115 MDT)]
Mike Acree (2006.08.29.0855 PDT)--
Guess you'll have your cake on the run. Hope it's a happy 78th.
I'll leave on Friday. Actually, 78 would be good. It's the 80th.
Best,
Bill P.
[From Mike Acree (2006.08.29.1026 PDT)]
Bill Powers (2006.08.29.1115 MDT)--
Actually, 78 would be good. It's the 80th.
Yes--very sorry my arithmetic is so atrocious! At least you're in
illustrious company today: Michael Jackson, John McCain, Elliott Gould,
Ingrid Bergman, John Locke, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Kettering,
Colbert, Ingres, and Lyman Lemnitzer (whom, for some reason, I always
want to call Lemon Lymnitzer).
Mike