If we look at something with the naked eye and see “plastic” and then look at it again with a super-microscope and see fundamental particles whizzing around, why does the second observation disprove the first or somehow make it an illusion?
Fact 1. This object, when looked at through the naked eye, looks like X.
Fact 2. This object, when looked at through the microscope, looks like Y.
Even after you know Fact 2, Fact 1 is still true. Microscopes don’t make liars of our eyes. I think the error is in not accepting human limitations to being with.
We are limited. We can only know what things look like through this or through that. But most people forget this and therefore state the two facts as “This object looks like X” and “This object looks like Y” with X != Y, so they think they have to discard one of the facts to avoid a contradiction. Really, they should be careful to state the full context of what they knew each time.
If we look at something with the naked eye and see “plastic” and then look at it again with a super-microscope and see fundamental particles whizzing around, why does the second observation disprove the first or somehow make it an illusion?
Fact 1. This object, when looked at through the naked eye, looks like X. Fact 2. This object, when looked at through the microscope, looks like Y.
Even after you know Fact 2, Fact 1 is still true. Microscopes don’t make liars of our eyes. I think the error is in not accepting human limitations to being with.
We are limited. We can only know what things look like through this or through that. But most people forget this and therefore state the two facts as “This object looks like X” and “This object looks like Y” with X != Y, so they think they have to discard one of the facts to avoid a contradiction. Really, they should be careful to state the full context of what they knew each time.