From: Robert Owen (rowen@technologist.com)
Date: Sat Dec 18 1999 - 17:01:44 MST
John Clark wrote:
> Madame Ubiquitous <eileen.krasowski@yale.edu> Wrote:
>
> > If time is an illusion, then you can pretty much give up studying physics,
>
> > illusions are of no importance to us,
>
> Well, an illusion is an experience that is different from the real thing,
> but the essence of qualia is experience so it's hard to see how
> calling it an illusion can mean much.
>
> John K Clark jonkc@att.net
If we are willing to use Kant's term "phenomenon" in the sense he meant
it, i.e. as a foreground for ontological reality, the need for a judgment of
"illusory" versus "factual" is precluded. Consider optical illusions of the
figure-ground variety. It is futile to argue about which apperception of
the drawing is "correct". BOTH provide an adequate visual orientation to
the graphic, but suffer from instability. The experienced "subjective"
phenomenon of consciousness we call "now" is, in contrast, quite stable
in addition to providing an adequate intuitive orientation to "temporality".
We thus achieve cognitive assonance regarding the relationship of what
we experience as "subjective" and "objective"; of course, we can on very
reasonable grounds maintain that throughout we are involved with the
ways in which "noumena" appear to us, that the "background" or our
perceptual experience is imperceptible as such.
As John I think makes clear, the fact that both the "psychotic" and the
"sane" both confront directly only appearances of something else does
not interfere with our ability to identify hallucinations and delusions as
such. Of course, this is a matter of social consensus, but I doubt we
can get any closer to "truth" and "reality" than this, at least as far as
concreteness is concerned. Perhaps the "Pythagorean Theorem" is of
a totally different epistemological order, insofar as we do not collectively
agree that it is valid, but individually remember that it is.
Bob
=======================
Robert M. Owen
Director
The Orion Institute
57 W. Morgan Street
Brevard, NC 28712-3659 USA
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