Posted by Reilly Atkinson on September 01, 1999 at 21:12:27:

In Reply to: Re: Agresive Criticism posted by mike cahill on September 01, 1999 at 17:30:28:

Mr. Cahill -- Thank you for you kind characterization of my earlier comments. I too shall be a bit hasty. And first let me say that your ideas are intriguing -- my comments, perforce, must be general against the day when I am more aquainted with your theory.

In many ways Socrates' ideas as expressed by Plato in his famous cave -- shadows on the wall and all that -- quite nicely describe the neuron-based description/theory of perception. As I see it, that's about as good as we can do for perception, reality What is truth asked jesting Pilot? The science based notion of reality is that the signals -- photons, pressure waves , -- come from someplace. After all, that your feeling of warmth outside comes from the sun is a massive assumption -- in reality, you have no notion whence the photons. But scientific common sense says emissions from the sun are the most convenient explanation for that feeling of warmth.
So science necessarily operates with a good measure of common sense, including the idea that there is a substantial material world out there.
It's a working hypothesis that makes life easier.

Are we talking pragmatic knowledge, or the more formal knowledge greatly loved by philosophers?

Regards
Reilly Atkinson

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