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Sensory Perception

Discussion in 'Off-topic Discussion' started by Deleted Account, Apr 11, 2018.

  1. Sensory perception is a philosophical theory on whether things exist and what determines existence. Basically take this as an example:

    You have a cup of coffee. You can perceive it with your senses, so therefore it exists. You can smell it, you can see it, you can hear it (kinda), you can taste it, and you can feel it. It exists.

    Now imagine you're home alone and have that cup of coffee on a table in front of you. You leave it there and go to the store. Does that cup of coffee still exist? According to this theory, it does not. It doesn't exist because nobody is there to perceive it.
     
  2. NZT 48

    NZT 48 Fapstronaut

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    What are you trying to say?
     
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  3. Just a theoretical situation based on what determines existence
     
  4. Interesting... Really you could say the only thing that exists is what is present with you in the moment, everything else is in the mind.
     
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  5. So much of our thoughts are in our heads and remain in our heads.

     
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  6. DesertMystic

    DesertMystic New Fapstronaut

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    I think it does still exist. Our awareness doesn't determine whether or not something exists. Just because you aren't there yo notice the coffee cup doesn't mean it isn't there anymore. And some might say the universe or God or what have you, is still aware of it.
     
  7. TenderCrisp

    TenderCrisp Fapstronaut

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    I like these kinds of theories / thought experiments. Similar to the question "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?". And in my opinion, I think it doesn't. Sound needs to travel to an ear which perceives it in order to be a sound. Likewise, the cup of coffee needs to be observed for it to exist. Nothing exists independently from our awareness of it. We are ultimately one with everything we perceive. The act of perceiving simultaneously creates and perceives whatever we see, hear, smell, taste, touch.
     
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  8. elevate

    elevate Fapstronaut

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    So if nobody sees / hears / touches me then I don't exist?

    Just because nobody sees me jogging in the morning doesn't mean I'm not there jogging.

    That's kind of like saying if nobody saw the hours of practice an athlete did in private, it never happened and the athlete was just a genius that didn't need hard work by the time somebody saw.
     
  9. TenderCrisp

    TenderCrisp Fapstronaut

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    That's actually a completely invalid statement / argument. Because if you are there jogging, then you are aware of yourself. One of the key characteristics of being human is that we are self-aware. Under normal circumstances it is impossible that no one sees / hears / touches you. Wherever you go, you do that yourself.

    In the thought experiments above, we were talking about inanimate objects in the absence of a body that could perceive them.

    A tree cannot hear itself falling.
    A cup of coffee cannot smell itself.
     
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  10. elevate

    elevate Fapstronaut

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    How does that work with temperature then?

    If that coffee was hot before you left and then it was cold by the time you came back.

    Is it only cold because that's what you expected to happen?
     
  11. TenderCrisp

    TenderCrisp Fapstronaut

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    Interesting question...

    Well, I'd say either that (i.e. expectation) or because of time. It's simple physics that a hot beverage "loses" its heat over time. I'm not really saying the coffee doesn't continue "existing" while I'm away. But if I'm not there to perceive it, it only exists as a memory in my current experience away from home. As long as the light of my awareness does not shine on the cup of coffee, we can't really say whether or not it's still there. Because all we ever know about objects in space is the perception of them. No perception = no existence? That's what we're trying to talk about here.

    Take for instance your body. When you fall asleep and dream, your consciousness takes on this "new body" of yourself in the dream. In that dream experience, your "actual body" in bed is ignored and forgotten. It ceases to exist while the dream lasts. No character inside your dream could walk up to "the real you" in bed and see / hear / smell / taste / touch you, let alone wake you up. And then when you finally do wake up, you realize it was all just a dream and a mental movie happening "inside of you"; a whole world of multiplicity and individuality, formed entirely out of yourself. What if "the real world" is just another dream, and everything in it is made of yourself? If you walk away from a cup of coffee in your dream, your dream self might think it still exists somewhere in the dream world, but when you wake up you know for a fact that not only did it just exist while you were creating/perceiving it, but that it never really existed in the first place.
     
  12. DesertMystic

    DesertMystic New Fapstronaut

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    So if there were no living creatures in all the universe, then would the entire universe not exist?
     
  13. TenderCrisp

    TenderCrisp Fapstronaut

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    Following that line of reasoning and according to that theory, no, it wouldn’t. The outside world is only a projection of consciousness into seemingly separate objects in a seemingly outside world. But it’s just as much all happening “inside“ you as the dream at night.
     
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  14. DesertMystic

    DesertMystic New Fapstronaut

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    If you say so.
     
  15. elevate

    elevate Fapstronaut

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    "You, yourself, this whole big drama, it was never more than a jerry-rig of presumption and dumb will, and you could just let go. To finally know that you didn't have to hold on so tight. To realize that all your life - you know, all your love, all your hate, all your memories, all your pain - it was all the same thing. It was all the same dream, a dream that you had inside a locked room, a dream about being a person."

    - Rust Cohle (True Detective)

    It can kind of be depressing thinking about existentialism / the enormity of space and time, but also empowering in the sense that you can just let go of the fear and live life the way you want to.

    Interesting stuff @TenderCrisp

    Especially when you're combining the consciousness of every self aware individual into one big dream.
     
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  16. TenderCrisp

    TenderCrisp Fapstronaut

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    Nice quote!! I guess I just found a new show to watch! :)

    Sure it can be depressing. But only if you get stuck in the realization that it’s all a dream and that you’re basically nothing. But to awaken to that reality happens in at least 3 steps: 1) we think we are something / a person, 2) we realize we are nothing / not the person we thought ourselves to be, and 3) we realize we are everything (which basically comes with the “side-effects“ of joy and enthusiasm and universal love for everything and everyone)
     
  17. Headspace

    Headspace Fapstronaut

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    I haven't heard of the term "sensory perception" before, but this kind of thought experiments have been very prominent with the arise of quantum theory in physics. What one could definitely learn from them is that you shouldn't jump to quick conclusions just because they look like "common sense" to you. Moreover, it is not only a theoretical game, but touches our (often unconscious or implicit) assumptions about the nature of reality, which surely have an effect on our values and the way we act in this world.

    Your answer is solipsistic. You let your own mind, and nobody else's, determine reality. However, I can tell you that I am a conscious, perceiving being, too. I can't prove it to you, but I am just as conscious as you. Moreover, your thinking of being the one and only conscious mind is only possible because you learned language at some point, and you learned it from others. Still, this doesn't logically disprove solipsism to you as everything I write might still be a creation of your mind.
    Solipsism also assumes that there is no actual empathy between people, which I don't believe in. If there was no real empathy, how would we even be able to communicate? Look at the word "communication" - it is basically about building a community of minds.
     
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  18. jordan0

    jordan0 New Fapstronaut

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    best post 10 + from me.
     
  19. Are you recommending that we adopt this theory? If so, why? In what way does it help us in our lives from day to day? :confused:
     
  20. No you shouldn't adopt it. Theories are important to consider, however, especially in a world where we blindly assume most things
     

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