So how DO you know?
Question taken from “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”, published June 5: 1793 by William Blake (English artist, poet and revolutionary thinker)
This is a deliberately thought-provoking question, arguably in idealist metaphysics but with many other associations.
It is not easy to answer, I think
James -
As in the case of all art, I'll just note what this means to me, or rather occurs to me, at this moment, at least:
Your five senses can work together and reinforce your perceptions, but there is no way to know how valid they are other than in seeming consistency with the perceptions of others. If your perceptions lead you to the same resulting actions as other people, then you might conclude that there is something to them. However, as in the development of any perception of reality, such as the developing ideas of a model for the atom, when perceptions are no longer consistent with new evidence, you have to amend them. In the context of this question, we are even less capable of determining the 'truth' of our perceptions. This is perhaps beyond wondering if the color "blue" is perceived the same way by others, in a physical sense, and into the realm of wondering how nearly different people perceive the notion of happiness or does someone call anger what another may call frustration.
In mathematics, one might arguably count on consistency. Without a closed set of 'rules' and relationships, it does not function in a practicable manner. If inconsistent results are obtained, one looks for an error in calculation. (Mathematical and statistical modeling gets into less straightforward than simple algebraic "truths," but consistency is still important.) But outside of such a closed system, anything can happen. So if our senses form a closed system within each of us to some degree, then, to some degree, our perceptions are not fully knowable to one another.
Cheers - Jim
The following is surely relevant:
'I assert, for myself, that I do not behold the outward creation, and that to me it is hindrance and not action. "What !" it will be questioned, "when the sun rises, do you not see a round disc of fire somewhat like a guinea !" Oh ! no, no ! I see an innumerable company of the heavenly host crying "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty !" I question not my corporeal eye any more than I would question a window concerning a sight. I look through it, and not with it.'
William Blake -- from "A Vision of the Last Judgment" an essay written to accompany a (now lost) painting of the same name - 1810
The attached cartoon is relevant -to this question - as well as funny...
But, alas, it doesn't display properly here!!!!
The sailor on the right says: "For the hundredth time, Captain, we're in a bottle!"
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