The other day Mollie and I walked out of our house, up the farm lane opposite, and were greeted with a breathtaking view of woods and fields bathed in a wonderful wintry light. Yet again we were reminded that these fields sit there patiently waiting for us to come and look.
But do they…?
The fields don’t exits independently of me being there to see them. “The fields” is a concept that my brain makes up in response to patterns of light and sounds hitting my sense organs and being compared to my filed away concept of “fields”. On close examination those fields have no boundary, the view has no boundary. They both blur into infinity in every direction. Their existence in this moment depends on my consciousness. They exist nowhere except in my consciousness.
Sure, there are particles and energy there (themselves both concepts made up by brains but hey I’ll let that go). Anti- solipsists needn’t worry that I am claiming that I am making up the whole world or saying that without me it doesn’t exit.
But is that your real world, or my real world, and where does one end and the other begin…?
It’s fair to say that thanks to evolution, our senses perceive only what is necessary for us to survive, namely a very narrow sub-class of what is real out there
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Indeed.
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Wonderful post… and no need to imagine for this “breathtaking view” of woods and fields to coalesce from energy into a “user interface” we may appreciate and interact with through the limitations of our perceptual faculties. Such a gift!
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