On Nov 27, 7:40 pm, Rex Allen <rexallen31...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 2:08 PM, 1Z <peterdjo...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > > On Nov 27, 6:49 pm, Rex Allen <rexallen31...@gmail.com> wrote: > > >> Given that there are an infinite number of ways that your information > >> could be represented, how likely is it that your experience really is > >> caused by a biological brain? Or even by a representation of a > >> biological brain? > > > Occam's razor: BIV, matrix and other sceptical scenarios are > > always more complex, and therefore less likely than > > "things are the way they seem to be" > > Actually not. We have our experience of the world, which is not > direct (e.g. colors, illusions, delusions, dreams, etc.).
How do you know? You can't maintain that indirect realism is true independent of any metaphysical presumptions. You can't maintain that it is true because that is the way the brain works, since it is a metaphysical presumption that there is such a thing as a brain as distinct from experience. You can't maintain that it is a direct subjective fact that your experiences are only of mental representations. There is nothing about an experience that labels it as indirect. You experience would be the same if it actually was direct experience of objects. > And then we > have the cause of our experience. > > This is true in all cases: scientific realism, scientific > materialism, BIV, matrix, other skeptical scenarios. It is not the same in all cases. World+Experience is simpler than World+Vat/Matrix+Experience > BIV, matrix, etc. don't introduce additional elements, they just > arrange the "causal" elements differently. Wrong. The vat is an additional element > None are more or less complex than the others. Wrong > *My* preferred option is simpler. Only conscious experience exists, > uncaused and fundamental. There is nothing else. That's non-explanatory. No-one thinks Occams' razor means you should give up on explanation. "Explanations should be as simple as possible, but no simpler" -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-l...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
