26
2 The Visual World
There is less to the primal universe than we are prepared to believe. This is a
fact of the first order of importance for anyone who aspires to understand the
universe rightly. As a simple example, the structure of objects as they present
themselves to us is partly dictated by the anatomy of the mammalian visual
system. Imagine that you’re looking at a triangular object: The visual brain
is provided with a specific mechanism for detecting straight lines and angles,
and that’s why you spontaneously discern a triangle. More generally, the way
the forms of objects appear to us is partly a function of our visual anatomy.
Indeed, an animal’s visual anatomy dictates its vocabulary of shapes.
In a similar fashion, the notion of force in physics is based on the effort
needed to move a heavy object—an effort that we feel in our muscles. Even
our idea of motion is based on the sensory experience of watching things in
motion: We experience what is called visual flow, and that distinctive sensation
provides the visceral meaning of motion. We humans have a complex intellective understanding of motion, but its meaningful content is rooted in our
senses.
Such feelings, which are laden with meaning for every living creature, are
the foundations which support scientific concepts. Without these underlying
sensations to give them meaning, the concepts would be empty of content.
How could you conceptualize force without any reference to a sensation of
effort? If it were not linked to the sensation of effort, force would be reduced
to a pure abstraction. It could be regarded as an un-interpreted effect in
the universe, represented graphically by an arrow, as it is indeed in physics.
In actual fact it would be less than that, because a visual system is needed to
experience the sight of the arrow, or to imagine it in the mind’s eye. If you
withdraw all sensation, you may find there’s almost nothing left.
The residue would be something so detached from reality as to be totally
alien to us. For us, things are real because they have features, properties, characteristics, attributes, qualities and defining traits. If all that is taken away, you
have a world in which nothing is actual and concrete. What remains is like the
abstractions of pure mathematics. Indeed, features or properties unsupported
by sensation are close to pure abstractions.
A Peacock’s Tail: The Party Never Ends
When we hear birds singing or the sound of a familiar voice, we don’t merely
register vibrations of the airmass, but have a unique experience of hearing a
complex sound with a well-defined timbre and a distinct quality. When you
listen to music, your experience is not just of hearing sounds, but is a unique
2 The Visual World
There is less to the primal universe than we are prepared to believe. This is a
fact of the first order of importance for anyone who aspires to understand the
universe rightly. As a simple example, the structure of objects as they present
themselves to us is partly dictated by the anatomy of the mammalian visual
system. Imagine that you’re looking at a triangular object: The visual brain
is provided with a specific mechanism for detecting straight lines and angles,
and that’s why you spontaneously discern a triangle. More generally, the way
the forms of objects appear to us is partly a function of our visual anatomy.
Indeed, an animal’s visual anatomy dictates its vocabulary of shapes.
In a similar fashion, the notion of force in physics is based on the effort
needed to move a heavy object—an effort that we feel in our muscles. Even
our idea of motion is based on the sensory experience of watching things in
motion: We experience what is called visual flow, and that distinctive sensation
provides the visceral meaning of motion. We humans have a complex intellective understanding of motion, but its meaningful content is rooted in our
senses.
Such feelings, which are laden with meaning for every living creature, are
the foundations which support scientific concepts. Without these underlying
sensations to give them meaning, the concepts would be empty of content.
How could you conceptualize force without any reference to a sensation of
effort? If it were not linked to the sensation of effort, force would be reduced
to a pure abstraction. It could be regarded as an un-interpreted effect in
the universe, represented graphically by an arrow, as it is indeed in physics.
In actual fact it would be less than that, because a visual system is needed to
experience the sight of the arrow, or to imagine it in the mind’s eye. If you
withdraw all sensation, you may find there’s almost nothing left.
The residue would be something so detached from reality as to be totally
alien to us. For us, things are real because they have features, properties, characteristics, attributes, qualities and defining traits. If all that is taken away, you
have a world in which nothing is actual and concrete. What remains is like the
abstractions of pure mathematics. Indeed, features or properties unsupported
by sensation are close to pure abstractions.
A Peacock’s Tail: The Party Never Ends
When we hear birds singing or the sound of a familiar voice, we don’t merely
register vibrations of the airmass, but have a unique experience of hearing a
complex sound with a well-defined timbre and a distinct quality. When you
listen to music, your experience is not just of hearing sounds, but is a unique