Commentary on Alex's dialogue with Spyridon Kakos

[David Bailey]

As you know, Alex has asked others to avoid posting in his dialogue with Spyridon Kakos. This thread provides an alternative place for us to interact indirectly with his ongoing dialogue. I suggest that we react to that other thread, rather than discuss among ourselves. Let me start things off.

My reaction to skatos' first post was largely to agree with him, except that I don't think the problem with science can be characterised by saying it is exact - so I am puzzled why he singled out this feature. Perhaps he means that the world can't be a closed system - because somehow our spirits interact with it - and obviously calculations that ignore that interaction are not going to be exact. I certainly think he should expand on what he thinks is wrong with science.

David

 

[David Bailey]

Skatos wrote:

Our senses are not a window to the world, they are a prison. Our logic and mind is not a tool to discover the truth, but a chain which keeps us away from it. It is like we are an empty bottle floating on an ocean of spirituality, keeping that lid on tight. It is only when we open that lid that the ocean will rush into us

There is a neuroscientist whose ideas come remarkably close to this - Donald Hoffman:

https://www.ted.com/talks/donald_hoffman_do_we_see_reality_as_it_is/transcript?language=en

He is saying that our senses deceive us, in the same sense that a modern computer can deceive us that computer files are coloured rectangles that sit on desktops. Our perceptions are attuned to stay alive and reproduce - not to see reality.

You can find longer versions of this idea that go into much detail, suggesting that the whole of science is part of the illusion!

David