From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!psych.toronto.edu!christo Mon May 25 14:07:03 EDT 1992
Article 5833 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
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>From: christo@psych.toronto.edu (Christopher Green)
Subject: Re: Grounding: Real vs. Virtual (formerly "on meaning")
Organization: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
References: <1992May20.221931.20652@news.media.mit.edu> <1992May21.145410.1055@psych.toronto.edu> <1992May21.170529.9463@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Message-ID: <1992May22.041323.12781@psych.toronto.edu>
Keywords: symbol, analog, Turing Test, robotics
Date: Fri, 22 May 1992 04:13:23 GMT

In article <1992May21.170529.9463@mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
>
>  Then how about a coherent explanation from you?  How do you account for
>the various phenomena usually referred to as optical illusions?  When we
>see things that are not there, or fail to see things that are there, are
>you claiming that these distortions are already present on the retinal
>image?  I see it as a more coherent explanation to say that what we see is
>not the retinal image at all, but is really an interpretation of the
>retinal image.  And both memory and other (i.e. non-visual) sensory input
>can significantly influence that interpretation.
>

The argument from illusion is indeed old and venerable, but you're on the 
verge of endorsing Berkeleyan idelaism.  Although this is emphaitically
not an explanation, I would characterize optical illusions as cases of
mispercieving the world, rather than cases of not perceiving it at all.
Now the question becomes how to explain misrepresentation, but I'm
hardly alone in being unable to deal with this. It is, from certain
perspectives, *the* central problem of cognitive science. 

Calvin Ostrum should chime in about now... :-)
-- 
Christopher D. Green                christo@psych.toronto.edu
Psychology Department               cgreen@lake.scar.utoronto.ca
University of Toronto
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