It’s tempting to try to eliminate this mistake class by insisting that the only legitimate kind of belief is an anticipation of sensory experience. But the world does, in fact, contain much that is not sensed directly. We don’t see the atoms underlying the brick, but the atoms are in fact there. There is a floor beneath your feet, but you don’t experience the floor directly; you see the light reflected from the floor, or rather, you see what your retina and visual cortex have processed of that light. To infer the floor from seeing the floor is to step back into the unseen causes of experience. It may seem like a very short and direct step, but it is still a step.
Do we know the atoms are in fact there? All “rationality” has to start on irrational beliefs or axioms in order to get anywhere. Like I assume people here believe in external reality and other minds, as do I, if not well that’s a whole other can of worms. I doubt folks here are solipsists.
I would say you do experience the floor directly as it does take more than just your eyes and brain to make it, like you said you see the light reflected OFF something. It’s also not really inferring the floor from seeing it, if I see a floor there is a floor unless something would cause me to doubt it. After all illusions are something that end up being disproven through testing.
Though my original point still stands, rationality can’t telling you everything. Some stuff you just gotta believe and some things can’t be determined rationally. External reality and atoms is just something you gotta believe since you cannot truly verify an external world or not. In matters of morality or taste rationality does nothing either. Choosing a flavor of ice cream doesn’t really have any rational basis after all.
Do we know the atoms are in fact there? All “rationality” has to start on irrational beliefs or axioms in order to get anywhere. Like I assume people here believe in external reality and other minds, as do I, if not well that’s a whole other can of worms. I doubt folks here are solipsists.
I would say you do experience the floor directly as it does take more than just your eyes and brain to make it, like you said you see the light reflected OFF something. It’s also not really inferring the floor from seeing it, if I see a floor there is a floor unless something would cause me to doubt it. After all illusions are something that end up being disproven through testing.
Though my original point still stands, rationality can’t telling you everything. Some stuff you just gotta believe and some things can’t be determined rationally. External reality and atoms is just something you gotta believe since you cannot truly verify an external world or not. In matters of morality or taste rationality does nothing either. Choosing a flavor of ice cream doesn’t really have any rational basis after all.