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"Much of what you experience is a simulation created by your brain."
Quote
We live in a simulated matrix of our own construction based on information coming from sense data.
No direct access to the world outside the brain is available.
What we naively think of as the "external world" is in fact an internal brain-model.
We are beset by illusions and it's philosophy's job to get us out of "the cave"
"The cave"
Vs.
Philosphy is liable to cause more trouble than it solves - philosphy's job to protect us from philosphical nonsense
"Fly bottle"
Anthony Flew quoting #Bertrand_Russell
Against naive realism
Looking down a telescope - what you see is different from what you infer ... "luminous dot" vs. "Andromeda galaxy"
"No one should suppose that the brain has any resemblance to what the physiologist sees."
A physical event is one which is #inferred to occur
"Is the environment, as we humans perceive it, reality? The answer is a resounding no."
Quote
External world
Brain-model
Sense organs
Ie. the only thing you can be aware of is the brain-model
It follows from what has been said that the nature of the external world cannot be checked by reference to our perceptions
In order to check the accuracy of a representation, we have to be able to compare the representation to the actual.
But all we have is representations and inferences, so there is no direct access
Kant: we are trapped in our private world of phenoma ... which represents a noumenal world which we have no direct contact with
Physiology shows how we come to perceive the world.
Counter-claim : The brain-model is being continuously updated
Open your eyes and see the world vs. see the brain-model
1. To check the veracity of the inferences made about the nature of external world from an examination of the brain-model
2. To check the probable accuracy of inferences made about the nature of the external world from an examination of the brain-model
It follows that the nature of external world cannot be appealed to either:
Because awareness of the external world unmediated by the model is not available to enable such checks to be made.
Anthony Flew : "Introduction to Western Philosophy" - chapter on "the external world"
Think, Simon Blackburn
Prof. Anthony Hood - physiologist falling into the fly bottle - one of these quotes
This way of thinking about perception is incoherent
Russell got it wrong because he was steeped in a tradition that started with Descartes - two paths ...
Kant, Locke, Berkeley early Wittgenstein
Spinoza, later Wittgenstein
What is the "external world" external to?
External to our bodies ?
External to #my body ?
External to our minds or my mind ?
A certain kind of analytic philosopher tends to take it for granted that we know what this phrase means ... but what does it mean !?
What is that ?