20160505 (reality)

A cartoon illustrating most of the pertinent factors in Plato's "cave" analogy: fire (light source), actual things, prisoners chained to face only cave wall

Time to address some idiocy

That’s been going around in

Philosophy for perhaps a couple

Thousand years, that in my not-

At-all humble opinion should

Be finally set to rest despite what

All the Matrix movies and “the

Universe is a hologram” people

Keep spouting. I contend we

Actually see, touch, smell, and

Hear reality not some piffle

Like “We don’t actually see, 

Touch, smell, or hear reality

Directly. What we get is all

Secondhand because of the 

Limits of our senses. For all

We really know we could be

Like those bodies floating in

Goo in the Matrices being fed

Computer coordinated stimuli

That make us think we are free

Beings in a natural world of 

Sun and sand and chicks and

Boards and humongous waves

Crashing along the coasts.” Be

Ye not tempted by these yahoos

Who claim intelligence and 

Wisdom but trade in tricks and

Delusions. The seminal idea

Traces back to a Chinese Taoist

Chuang Tzu, (regarded as second

Only to Lao Tzu) who maintained

Roughly and briefly he woke from

A dream that he was a butterfly

To the thought that he just as

Easily could be a butterfly

Now dreaming he was a man.

It’s at this point Chuang Tzu

Should have stubbed his toe

Against a rock in his garden

And we would have no more

Such silly talk, but he didn’t.

Instead he talked to his comrades

And the race was on. Not many

Western philosophers dabbled in

That doo until we come to Rene

DesCartes who set on a journey

To discover undeniable truth

Once he realized (like Chuang)

He could doubt every product

Of his senses. One does have to

Allow that Rene was a sickly

Soul for most of his life and

Forgive his questioning whether

The stove was indeed HOT.

Many learned would interject

At this point—“Ain’t you

Forgetting Plato’s cave?” Not

Really as I’ll explain. Plato did

Not deny the reality delivered

By our senses. What he sought 

To explain with the cave was

The ‘higher reality” of the Ideas.

He likened our regular perceptions

To shadows cast on a wall seen

By prisoners chained to see only

The wall (this was us). If we ever

Got loose to see real things (actually

The essences or highly generalized

Concepts of things) we would rank

Our perceptions, the shadows, as

Paltry by comparison. He never

Intended us to regard our actual

Perceptions as delivering falsity,

More like near-falsity. So when

Neo (catch the ref to Neo-Platonism)

Tells Keanu he don’t know what 

Is, he’s actually passing bull-pucky.

But if he didn’t there’d be no

Movie with those super slow

Bullets and the kick boxing of

Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon

Plus no sequels. As for the computerized

Coordination of all our dreams

Fuggedabotit. The only factor

Likely to outpace the growth 

Of computer memory is the 

Permutations of one being

Receiving (let’s be generous

Here for the sake of argument)

One million different sensory

Inputs per second (I shot on 

The low side) to the three-hundred

Millionth power (of just

Americans) and you’ve got

Yourself a beard even Occam’s

Razor cannot shave. As for the

Distinct possibility of illusions

In our sensing, no problem. I 

Dealt with that in an earlier 

Blog.*

c. J.S.Manista, 2016 

* I tried to find it but haven't yet.