Part of Reality Cannot be Perceived

[Jim__]

23. Can you envision a 4 dimensional sphere?

I can't. I can picture a circle or a 3 dimension sphere. I believe the difference is that I have experience with 2 and 3 dimensional space. I don't have any experience with 4 dimensional space. But, if our ideas come from a "realm of ideas" rather than from our experience, why can't I picture a 4-dimensional sphere?

If each human mind is a separate realm, then we can ask what if anything is the connection between a concept in one person's mind and a concept in another person's mind. After all, it seems that shared concepts are a prerequisite for communication. For example, hearing spoken language of no apparent significance isn't enough to allow an infant to acquire language. An infant is spoken to and hears other people speak to each other in contexts involving various kinds of non-verbal interaction.

The connection between a concept in one person's mind and the same concept in another person's mind is common experience, with one person being able to enhance the experience of another person through communication. For instance, if each of two people has a concept of an elephant and of the color pink, then person A can claim to have seen a pink elephant, and person B, even though she has never seen a pink elephant, will have an understanding of what person A means, even though her concept of a pink elephant may not exactly match what person A is claiming to have seen.

I don't believe that a person born blind has any experience of the color blue. I don't believe that I can describe blue to him in such a way that he can experience it. I can tell him about the interval of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans perceive as blue, and I believe that he can grasp that. But, I don't believe he can experience blue.

What was your motivation for choosing the word "realm" in the above excerpt?

Basically, it was a response to what you said: If there is a realm of ideas, then there can be a human mental representation of an idea. However, if there is no realm of ideas, then there is nothing to be represented. The human mind can serve as the realm of ideas.

Each human mind is a realm that contains mental representations of our experiences. The human mind has representations of a circle, circumference and diameter. Our mind also has the ability to mentally rearrange our experiences.

In the above excerpt, does the word "experiences" include not only perceptions, but also conceptions? If thinking is an experience, then the word "experiences" already encompasses the conceptual realm. In that case, it wouldn't make sense to suggest that the mind merely stores and rearranges perceptions.

It includes direct perceptions and modified versions of perceptions - modified either through conversations with others, or through mental rearrangement of perceptions. An example of mental rearrangement of perceptions would be someone who had seen an ellipse, but not a circle; yet that person can modify his image of an ellipse by making the major axis and minor axis be equal in length and so can conceive of a circle even though he has never seen one.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by the mind merely stores and rearranges perceptions. I believe the mind does store and rearrange perceptions; but it does much more than that.