An enquiry concerning the principles of natural knowledgeWhitehead, Alfred North
Philosophy
An enquiry concerning the principles of natural knowledge
Whitehead, Alfred North
Knowledge, Theory of; Science -- Philosophy; Space and time
In the case of a delusive perceptual object character No. 2 of its
situation has no existence, except so far as the event is necessarily
still a 'passive condition' according to the nomenclature of
Chapter VII of Part II. The
active conditioning events for a delusive perceptual object must be
sought elsewhere than in its situation. Let us confine ourselves to the
consideration of non-delusive perceptual objects, that is, to physical
objects.
60.4 But the line of separation between delusive and non-delusive
perceptual objects is not quite so clear as we might wish. The
definition of delusiveness and non-delusiveness is sufficiently obvious,
namely, a perceptual object is non-delusive when it is the apparent
character of an event which is itself an active condition for the
appearance of that character as perceptible from all percipient events.
In the nomenclature of Chapter VII of Part II the
situation of a physical object is its 'generating event.'
Now if this definition is to be taken to the foot of the letter, all
perceptual objects are delusive; for all perception is belated. The sun
which we see is the apparent character of an event simultaneous with our
percipient event, and this event is about eight minutes subsequent to
the generating event corresponding to that appearance of the sun. In the
case of other astronomical phenomena the discrepancy is more glaring. In
the case of terrestrial perceptual objects the discrepancy is less
glaring in many cases, though for sounds it is very insistent and is the
reason of their very indeterminate situations. But, speaking generally
and admitting exceptions, for the greater part of ordinary domestic
perceptions the belatedness of the apparently characterised event behind
the causally characterised event is a small fraction of the percipient's
specious present.
Accordingly our knowledge of causal characters is a theory built up by
ignoring this element of delusiveness in all perceptual objects, and
then by introducing it as an additional correction in the exceptional
cases.
61. Transition from Appearance to Cause.
61.1 But how can we pass from appearance to cause, seeing that
our knowledge of nature is confined to awareness of appearance? For
example, all measurement is a measurement of appearance.
Evidently therefore causal characters can only be directly known to us
as functions of apparent characters. They are characters of characters.
For example, a quantity which we assign to a physical object as the
result of some measurement is a character of its apparent character.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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