Posts by profkesarsarwara

Good insight, thank you!

Hello Cassius, its good to hear from you again too!

I will definitely revisit DeWitt on this matter, as I can vaguely see the scientific method in this way of treating sensory perception.

I hadn't considered the mind and the senses as being separate, and error in the former being caused by lack of information from the latter. To what extent can we separate them? Is a sense defined as the nerve in my hand, the electrical impulse my hand sends, or what my brain makes of that electrical impulse? I think I can intuitively separate the concept of the nerve impulse from the opinion I form on the impulse, but ultimately these things are connected processes that happen within milliseconds of each other. Can it then be said that sensory perception error is only caused by internal will and judgement, and not the interaction of one's senses with external stimuli?

Much against my will I've recently been studying Descartes' views on the reliability of the senses as a tool for acquiring secure knowledge as part of my Philosophy degree. I understand that in Epicurean thought the senses are one of the three secure ways to make sense of nature in that sensory perception is a tool that is given to us by nature itself. What I'd like to consider is whether the possibility of being deceived by the external world is a factor that Epicureans should be concerned by. Gods and evil demons may be grouped with unicorns and trolls for all that I regard them, as this is not the sort of deception of which I am speaking. Indeed scepticism is psychologically impossible and not worth considering in this radical way, but I cannot help but feel nevertheless hesitant to accept that my senses, feelings and anticipations are free from error now. Does Epicurus offer a logical argument that proves this to be the case? I understand that rationalism plays a strong role in Epicureanism, so I would like to learn what actually renders the senses, pleasure and pain, and anticipations truly reliable as a tool to navigate life. Many thanks!

The entire general concept of "what happens after death" has been so overly considered across the varying belief systems. In my personal philosophy, I always considered it, simply speaking, the end. And in a manner of speaking, that is what Epicurus put forward also. He taught that at the time of death, the soul would evaporate entirely. While the existence of such a thing is indeed arguable, the idea he puts across is that of finality, teaching us to instead enrich our life in the present of things rather than dwell on what will be. This could not be a more crucial point. He claimed that death marks the end of consciousness and sensation, thereby leaving us unable to feel any emotional or physical pain/pleasure. Logically speaking, this seems the most adequate way to describe what wishful-thinkers describe to be the "afterlife". However it does not do well to dwell on this conception of time after one's death. In a writing, Epicurus presented a rather interesting sentiment, "Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here". So why then, do we spend hours of thought thinking fearing death? Death is not to be feared, neither desired, it simply is. And then there are those who assume, that if death is an unavoidable constant, then the point of life must be to die. But this is not at all the case. Do we begin a book to finish it? Does a song begin with a beautiful chord merely for it to end? We read a book to feel the emotions it evokes, to learn and digest, to have our hopes risen, then shattered. We listen to a song to smile, and swell with the harmonies. Of course we are born with the inevitable fate of death, we are mortal after all, but that is merely the finale of the play, the closing act, if you will. We are not born to take a bow and exit stage, we are born to be joyous and learn and cry. Or alternatively put in the perspective of Catius' cat's three-legged-stool, we are born to feel pleasure and pain, to interpret the world through our senses, to anticipate. We are not born to die, we are born to live!