Post by Terrapin Station on Aug 21, 2017 10:37:49 GMT
Mental phenomena that are only mental phenomena, such as desires or aesthetic judgments, for example, can't be an illusion, because there's nothing to get wrong. Illusions require that something really is such and such way, but you get it wrong for particular sorts of reasons (which we could detail). Meaning is one example of something that is a mental phenomenon only, and thus it can't be illusory. (Though someone could have the mistaken belief that meaning isn't mental only.)
Re perceptual content, I'm a "direct realist." It's worth noting that epistemically, there's no justification for saying that anything is an illusion unless we (a) know how it really is, but (b) know that our perception of it doesn't match how it really is (for the sorts of reasons that normally account for illusions). However, if we know this, then we completely undermine the notion that everything could be an illusion. If we don't know (a) and (b), there is no grounds for saying that anything is an illusion. So "everything is an illusion" is quite nonsensical.
Finally, that something is physical in no way implies that it's permanent.
The illusion is what we project and the perception of it would be different for each individual, due to our ego mindsets. It won't match due to differing beliefs, but the paradox being that is does really match, because it is all complete and one and whole. The reality\illusion of our human existence is all just a dream within a dream. You appear to be intellectualizing something that you want to make real, or even permanent, when that is just your own projection\perception of it. Many want there to be meaning, because the thought of meaninglessness scares them. That is just living in fear. If you don't think about anything, nothing has meaning, because in a sense, it is all nothing, yet at the same time is all something, which is completeness and wholeness. You know that feeling when you are right in the moment and feeling connected.
Ask who's reality\dream is it anyway, yours or mine?
You walk into your kitchen and see your refrigerator.
In your view, that experience, including seeing the refrigerator, is an illusion.
So here's the question: "How would we know, or why would we believe, that the refrigerator we see is an illusion?"
What is your answer to that?