Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Macbeth's Dagger and Other Illusions
Hylas objects to Philonous' idealism by claiming that on his view there is no way to distinguish between veridical appearances and illusions. In other words, idealism implies that the danger than Macbeth sees before his eyes but cannot clutch is just as real as the dagger he uses to kill Duncan. Is this a valid objection? How successful is Philonous' response?
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In the attempt to disprove skepticism Philonous attempts to make a distinction between veridical appearances and illusions. Philonous believes that with this distinction you can clearly call something real and something else false. Though, as Hylas notices this doesn’t disprove Skepticism as you still cannot differentiate appearances and illusions. To which Hylas then makes the claim that due to this there cannot be a difference between appearances and illusions. Furthermore, due to this claim you can then make the claim that the dagger Macbeth hallucinates is as real as the one to which he uses to kill Duncan. Though, I would disagree with both Hylas and Philonous. While I do agree with Hylas in the nature that the argument that Philonous makes makes no progress to the disproval of Skepticism I believe there to be a distinction between illusions and appearances. Hylas attempts to argue that as you cannot perceive a difference between illusions and appearances there cannot be a difference. But, I would argue that uncertainty to the truth does not make the truth any less true from falsities. While it is justified that you cannot be certain of what is an illusion that does not make it a reality by default. Furthermore, the jump to conclusion that a hallucination is as close to reality as an actual dagger is preposterous. To make such an argument would be like arguing that a blind man’s vision of a chair in front of him is as real as the chairs actual appearance. While many would argue that Hylas’s argument makes sense as it is in accord with the theory of Schrödinger’s cat, but I find there to only be one true reality whether we know that or not may be vague but it is still the only reality.
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