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Single Idea 4831
[filed under theme 12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 5. Interpretation
]
Full Idea
If the human body is affected in a manner which involves the nature of any external body, the human mind will regard the said external body as actually existing.
Gist of Idea
If the body is affected by an external object, the mind can't help believing that the object exists
Source
Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], II Pr 17)
Book Ref
Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Ethics, Improvement of Understanding, Letters', ed/tr. Elwes,R [Dover 1955], p.98
A Reaction
This is like one of Hume's 'natural beliefs', and seems to me a powerful idea. One of the basic questions of epistemology is, apart from the question 'which beliefs can I justify?', also 'which beliefs can I never abandon?' Skip the scepticism?
The
26 ideas
with the same theme
[role of interpretation in a direct act of perception]:
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1821
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Sensations cannot be judged, because similar sensations have equal value, and different ones have nothing in common
[Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius]
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20792
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Stoic perception is a presentation to which one voluntarily assents
[Stoic school, by Stobaeus]
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1883
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How can the intellect know if sensation is reliable if it doesn't directly see external objects?
[Sext.Empiricus]
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2295
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Why does pain make us sad?
[Descartes]
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4831
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If the body is affected by an external object, the mind can't help believing that the object exists
[Spinoza]
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23639
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It is unclear whether a toothache is in the mind or in the tooth, but the word has a single meaning
[Reid]
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2774
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Kant says the cognitive and sensory elements in experience can't be separated
[Kant, by Dancy,J]
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22033
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Hegel tried to avoid Kant's dualism of neutral intuitions and imposed concepts
[Hegel, by Pinkard]
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4163
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All perception is intellectual
[Schopenhauer]
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2878
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We see an approximation of a tree, not the full detail
[Nietzsche]
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7156
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Sense perceptions contain values (useful, so pleasant)
[Nietzsche]
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7181
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Pain shows the value of the damage, not what has been damaged
[Nietzsche]
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7129
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Perception is unconscious, and we are only conscious of processed perceptions
[Nietzsche]
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6098
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Perception goes straight to the fact, and not through the proposition
[Russell]
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20749
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Perceived objects always appear in a context
[Heidegger]
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18278
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Kant showed that our perceptions are partly constructed from our concepts
[Reichenbach]
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20750
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The mind does not unite perceptions, because they flow into one another
[Merleau-Ponty]
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22449
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When we say 'is red' we don't mean 'seems red to most people'
[Foot]
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3482
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Perception is a function of expectation
[Searle]
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4049
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The way in which colour experiences are evoked is physically odd and unpredictable
[Goldman]
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19092
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There is no pure Given, but it is cultured, rather than entirely relative
[McDowell, by Macbeth]
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2718
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Perception is first simple, then objectual (with concepts) and then propositional
[Audi,R]
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4910
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Sense organs don't discriminate; they reduce various inputs to the same electrical pulses
[Carter,R]
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4911
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The recognition sequence is: classify, name, locate, associate, feel
[Carter,R, by PG]
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9124
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We are unable to perceive a nose (on the back of a mask) as concave
[Sorensen]
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17979
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Research shows perceptual discrimination is sharper at category boundaries
[Murphy]
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