A Rational Cosmology: Perceptual Similarity Among Healthy Individuals

Here, I will demonstrate that human perception of physical phenomena is, for all healthy, non-handicapped persons, fundamentally the same and provides accurate knowledge about the natures of said phenomena.

My contention is as follows: Let us presume that you and I are entirely healthy individuals, with no sensory impairments. If I observe a red ball (or any other entity) from a given angle, and then you observe the red ball from the same angle, in the same environment, we will both see the same red ball in the same way. There will be no difference between my perception and yours. To demonstrate this, only the physicalist model of consciousness will suffice.

The physicalist model acknowledges that there are physical mechanisms which are necessary for consciousness to function. The eyes function as receptors of light of a certain "frequency," which then transmit a signal of the light's reception through the optic nerve to the visual cortex of the brain.

For all healthy organisms in the human species, even though they will vary somewhat in their genetic makeup, the functionality of all their organs will be the same, and so will be the mechanisms by which these organs will function. For two healthy human beings, the eyes may be of different colors, shapes, and sizes, but their functional structures will all be the same.

Similarly, two healthy individuals may have brains of different sizes, but the innate qualities of their brains would be identical, including those qualities which automatically (i.e., non-volitionally) allow a human being to experience perception of the world around him.

It is true that two healthy individuals may differ vastly in intelligence, reasoning, and speed of thought. However, none of this is due to any inherent difference in the perceptual mechanisms of the brain. Every man is born tabula rasa, meaning that every man's intellectual mind is a blank slate, but every man's perceptual mind is already fully established at birth, seeing as, provided that one's organism does not suffer any physical impairments, the way one perceives with one's senses never changes during one's life.

Physics has already demonstrated that variety in colors is a result of quantitative differences in the measurements of light on the electromagnetic spectrum. (This model is contingent on experiment, and there can be legitimate disputes about what the true units of measurement pertaining to the electromagnetic spectrum are. However, one thing is certain: there is a way to quantitatively measure differences in color.)

Thus, if you and I have the same functional structures of the eyes, and the same perceptual capacities of the brain, we will "see" the same thing when the same "frequency" of light enters our pupils at the same angle in the same environment.

It is true that I can never have your particular experience, in the sense that I cannot be you. However, I can fully know what that experience is like, by looking at the same object, in the same environment, from the same vantage point as you did. Auditory, olfactory, and tactile senses have similarly been explained in terms of quantitative phenomena (be they sound waves, chemical interactions, or variations in temperature and pressure), and, given a certain quantity of external stimuli, coupled with fundamentally same physical mechanisms (ears, nose, hands, brain) in healthy individuals, will produce the same perception in multiple people.

Read other parts of "A Rational Cosmology" by clicking here.