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Tallis in Wonderland

Perception & Reality

Raymond Tallis perceives a difference between them.

The relationship between perception and reality has preoccupied Western philosophers since the pre-Socratic thinker Parmenides proclaimed that our senses deceive us. “Do not be guided by your dull eyes, nor by your resounding ears, but test all things with the power of your thinking alone” he proclaimed in On Nature (c.475 BC), setting in train a conversation that shows no sign of abating, even less of reaching a conclusion.

There would seem to be a strong case for looking with beady-eyed suspicion upon our beady eyes. Objects which we believe are unchanging look different when observed from the front or the back, from near or far, in bright light or dim.

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