On 3/7/2014 12:52 PM, LizR wrote:
On 8 March 2014 01:21, Edgar L. Owen <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
All,
An empty space within which events occur does not exist. There is no
universal fixed
pre-existing empty space common to all events and observers.
Why? Because we cannot establish its existence by any observation
whatsoever. We
NEVER observe such an empty space. All we actually observe is interactions
between
particulate matter and energy. In fact, all observations ARE interactions of
particulate matter or energy, they are never observations of empty space
itself.
Observations are not in fact observations of interactions between matter and energy,
either. They are in fact interactions inside our brains, hypothetically the reception of
nerve signals by our brain cells.
That seems like an inconsistent way to put it; sort of talking at two different levels of
description and saying one is wrong because I can talk at the other. The interactions
inside my brain are a lot more hypothetical than observation of words on my computer
screen. "I'm observing a computer screen." is pretty concrete and direct. On a physical
model I could say "Photons from excited phosphor atoms are being absorbed by chromophores
in my retina which are sending neural signals into my brain." Or eschewing physicalism,
"Information merging into my thought processes via preception, instantiates the thought
"I'm observing a computer screen"."...which pretty much brings me back to just "I'm
observing a computer screen." A circle of explanation.
Brent
The idea of the existence of matter and energy, space and time (or more modernly,
mass-energy and space-time) is of course a hypothesis which we use to account for the
apparent regularities in our observations. You can't throw out a hypothesis on the basis
that we can't observe its components directly because we don't observe any of reality
directly, so on that basis you end up with solipsism.
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