
The Grand Illusion - diodorus
http://inference-review.com/article/the-grand-illusion
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davidgrenier
Can someone educate me on why the article is written like this? Does the type
of discourse have a name? Is there specific target audience, like philosophers
for instance? Is it this particular author or should I expect the same of most
content on that site?

~~~
salawat
This seems to be a summary or "plug" of Dennet's philosophy. Usually this type
is a poor attempt at trying to reproduce the author's subjective understandimg
of another's philoskphy, which is kind of moot.

I'd recommend reading Dennett's work strongly over this one. The point of
philosophical reading is to share the "way one thinks" not what one is
thinking about.

For instance, the closest we get to an elucidation of how Dennett thinks in
this piece is that we learn that Dennett accepts that a large component of
first-person consciousness is an illusion (I.e. the sense experience being
"differrnt" to what is measurably the case), and that he rejects a dualistic
desperation of mind being distinct from the world it is observing.

I can't speak to this American flag illusion, but look at the bent pencil in
water example.

If we weren't taught about refraction and just took our senses for gospel, we
would posit that water bends things placed in it when viewed from outside the
water. We would be under the influence of an illusion (our internal
representation of what is going on not aligning with the measurable reality
around us) in our consciousness.

In that way, Dennett can safely say that the phenomena of consciousness ITSELF
is an illusion based on the principle that the map != the landscape (the map
being our consciousness, the landscape being the world). The map resembles the
landscape as closely as possible to help in navigating, but the map is, and
will never be a perfect representation of what is going on around us.

As an exercise to demonstrate what I mean, find a small rock, and place it
somewhere on the ground outside while keeled down. Walk away from where you
left it for a few minutes and think about other things. Then go back to where
you put it and try to find the rock you placed from a distance.

Likely, if you don't cheat and hyperlearn the location by expending extra
effort to remember the exact spot, you'll end up having a hard time picking
out the exact spot you left it. You'll know where it is within say, 2 feet,
but you won't "see it".

This is the map phenomena. Our consciousness is a small slice of what is going
on around us, and it is constantly warping and revising based on what we are
thinking about and trying to do. By Dennett's reasoning, consciousness MUST be
an illusion.

That doesn't mean you should DISMISS it, by any means. Just be aware that what
you consciously experience is not the sum total of everything that is there.
It's just the stuff most important to what you are trying to do at that
moment. To make things even more confusing, "what you are trying to do at that
moment" is by definition MORE than what you are consciously aware of trying to
do at that moment! You are PART of the world, so your conscious awareness of
your thoughts is just your innate ability to sample your own mental state!

Welcome to Philosophy. Taking your world view, and expanding it whether you
like it or not. Aspirin is on the shelf, here's a blanket to hide under in
case of existential crisis.

It is useful if for no other reason than it teaches one how easy it is for
something that looks "simple" to someone else to get utterly destroyed in
translation when being communicated to someone else. Both parties to the
communication need to "line up their illusions" for stuff to make sense.

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steve_g
I guess I need to read Dennett's book. He's clearly a smart guy, but the the
idea that consciousness is an illusion seems self-refuting.

"I assert not-I"

"Observations show that observations are not real"

How does that work?

~~~
tempodox
I can't see how having anyone tell me I'm just an illusion would do me any
good for any of the decisions I have to make (after all, the person telling me
would be even more of an illusion). On this particular question, I decide to
not invest any time or energy in such pointless sophistry.

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lwhalen
What is the 'American flag illusion' the author is so keen on harping about?
30 seconds on DDG didn't help me out.

~~~
rwbhn
[https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/america...](https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/american-
flag-optical-illusion/)

