Philosophy
Look at the cube on the right. Is the center piece on the top side of the cube lighter or darker than the center piece on the left side of the cube? Whatever you 'think' is the right answer (and feel free to test for yourself), there is no denying that the top piece looks darker than the side piece. If the light hitting your retina in both cases is exactly the same, however, why do they look not simply different but radically different?
With the exception of a few optical illusions here and there, the average person thinks that one's perception reflects an external reality as it is in itself. The 17th century philosopher George Berkeley, however, demonstrated that the only thing we can ever know directly is our perceptions, and not what those perceptions are about. That's right, good-bye external world... Even the wall you are about to punch so you can refute Berkeley is only known to you as a series of perceptions of color and hardness, soon to be followed by pain :)
Any scientist who invokes Bishop Berkeley's got my attention, and in this truly mind-blowing presentation, Beau Lotto does just that in order to explain why context in visual perception is even more important than the colors that actually hit your eyes.
With the use of simple but fantastic optical illusions, Lotto will mess with your mind to the point you might think you're tripping on acid, and despite all the confusion and cognitive insecurity, by the end you will know a little bit more about how we perceive the world.
I think that Kant would also be pleased :)
- George Berkeley
(1685-1753) ?All the choir of heaven and furniture of earth - in a word, all those bodies which compose the frame of the world - have not any subsistence without a mind,? was the view of George Berkeley, an Irish bishop and philosopher. He was an empiricist...
- Lecture 6 - Primary And Secondary Qualities
No introductory philosophy course is complete without at least touching on the famous distinction between primary and secondary qualities originally proposed by Descartes, but explored in more detail by Locke, Berkeley and Hume. If you don't...
- Bad Ripple Or Snow Blindness Will Cause This...
"Disappearing Dots" by Vurdlak March 12th, 2006 Mighty Optical Illusions If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, you will only see one color – pink. If you stare at the black + in the center, the moving dot turns to green....
- Erno Rubik And A Retro Toy
Hungarian mathematician, educator and inventor of Rubik's Cube (1974), which became a popular toy of the 1980s. Rubik's Cube consists of 26 small cubes that rotate on a central axis; nine coloured cube faces, in three rows of three each, form...
- Erno Rubik And His Cube
It's the birthday of Erno Rubik the "Hungarian mathematician, educator and inventor of Rubik's Cube (1974), which became a popular toy of the 1980s. Rubik's Cube consists of 26 small cubes that rotate on a central axis; nine coloured cube...
Philosophy
Beau Lotto - Optical Illusions Show Us How We See
Look at the cube on the right. Is the center piece on the top side of the cube lighter or darker than the center piece on the left side of the cube? Whatever you 'think' is the right answer (and feel free to test for yourself), there is no denying that the top piece looks darker than the side piece. If the light hitting your retina in both cases is exactly the same, however, why do they look not simply different but radically different?With the exception of a few optical illusions here and there, the average person thinks that one's perception reflects an external reality as it is in itself. The 17th century philosopher George Berkeley, however, demonstrated that the only thing we can ever know directly is our perceptions, and not what those perceptions are about. That's right, good-bye external world... Even the wall you are about to punch so you can refute Berkeley is only known to you as a series of perceptions of color and hardness, soon to be followed by pain :)Any scientist who invokes Bishop Berkeley's got my attention, and in this truly mind-blowing presentation, Beau Lotto does just that in order to explain why context in visual perception is even more important than the colors that actually hit your eyes.
With the use of simple but fantastic optical illusions, Lotto will mess with your mind to the point you might think you're tripping on acid, and despite all the confusion and cognitive insecurity, by the end you will know a little bit more about how we perceive the world.
I think that Kant would also be pleased :)
- George Berkeley
(1685-1753) ?All the choir of heaven and furniture of earth - in a word, all those bodies which compose the frame of the world - have not any subsistence without a mind,? was the view of George Berkeley, an Irish bishop and philosopher. He was an empiricist...
- Lecture 6 - Primary And Secondary Qualities
No introductory philosophy course is complete without at least touching on the famous distinction between primary and secondary qualities originally proposed by Descartes, but explored in more detail by Locke, Berkeley and Hume. If you don't...
- Bad Ripple Or Snow Blindness Will Cause This...
"Disappearing Dots" by Vurdlak March 12th, 2006 Mighty Optical Illusions If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, you will only see one color – pink. If you stare at the black + in the center, the moving dot turns to green....
- Erno Rubik And A Retro Toy
Hungarian mathematician, educator and inventor of Rubik's Cube (1974), which became a popular toy of the 1980s. Rubik's Cube consists of 26 small cubes that rotate on a central axis; nine coloured cube faces, in three rows of three each, form...
- Erno Rubik And His Cube
It's the birthday of Erno Rubik the "Hungarian mathematician, educator and inventor of Rubik's Cube (1974), which became a popular toy of the 1980s. Rubik's Cube consists of 26 small cubes that rotate on a central axis; nine coloured cube...