Only a theory

[Guest guest]

Namaste All,

I was watching " It?s only a theory " on BBC 4 last night. Scientific

theories are proposed by experts and the panel votes on whether to accept

or reject the theory. The proposer has to argue for the truth of his

theory and answer questions. One theory which a professor of the

psychology of vision proposed was that we do not see the world as it is or

that the world is a construction devised out of the flimsiest of clues.

Out of what is " upside-down and 2 dimensional " we create the world as we

perceive it to be. The correctness of this vision is always under threat

by our assumptions which though mostly sound can lead us astray. After

some discussion the panel of two everymen and one everywoman voted two

for and one against.

 

Does this scientific theory have anything to say to Advaita? Ought it to

have any input to our speculations? In a sense the classic Advaitic

approach to this is lateral. Instead of accepting that there is a threat

to knowledge which is fundamental, Advaita says O.K. let us encounter an

illusion or an error. Is there anything to the structure of our response

to that error which is fundamental to all perception whatever i.e. true or

false? (quote taken from the post of Sastri-ji)

 

P. 62. VPS-- The advaitin says:-- In order to account for the

particularised action (of stretching out the hand to grasp the silver),

we must assume a composite mental state, (i.e., an immediate apprehension

of this and the silver).

 

In fact then according to the Advaitic view we are reaching for

substantial silver. There is two-fold aspect to our perception. On the

one hand is the mental what has been called the attribute aspect which may

be due to the psychological makeup of our mind. On the other hand is the

being aspect of a something which is there and which has to be true as a

something even if it is not the something that the attribute suggests.

This substantial something has to be there. It is being which unites the

subject and the object. There is no inference involved in this

encounter. This is the fundamental structure of all perception whatever.

 

Advaita starts from there,

Best Wishes,

Michael.

 

 

 

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