Philosophers

[Jinmyo]

Safe flight over the water, Wilfrid.

[lxt]

"Isn't truth an idea which traverses a temperament?"

Stefanyb – Here’s my perception of the above statement.

The Truth is believed to be a spiritual reality, not a physical one.  What comes through our senses exerts a powerful influence on us.  It presents itself as true, and we are inclined to believe it.  In addition, what we see is shaped by our individual way of seeing.  We focus on what interests us; we filter out of our perception what seems unimportant to us.  So each of us perceives the world around him and the events that fill his life in a unique way.  No two people see the same event precisely alike.  To take it further, we might understandably conclude that truth is relative; i.e., it varies from person to person, that one person’s truth is another’s error, and that there is no higher claim to validity than individual viewpoint.

“There is no truth. There is only perception. “ - Gustave Flaubert

[g.johnson]

Just a quick question: do you think the higher level processing - in pure physiological terms - is going to be change when someone stops seeing just a duck and sees a rabbit for the first time - in the same picture of course?

Yes. Since all perceptions correspond to a physiological state (pace Descartes), a change in perception must cause a change in that state.

For example, different areas of the brain are active when a particular shape in a picture is perceived as figure or ground (See a recent editorial by a sometime collaborator of mine -- Rubin, N. Figure and ground in the brain. Nature Neuroscience 4, 857-858; 2001).

[Carrot Top]

I think of Marinetti as being someone who clearly and purposefully set out to express a philosophy through food, but of course he had a lot of words attached.