Stop Saying Everything Is An Illusion

[baywax]

Everything is an illusion because everything you perceive is processed by your senses which are fallable and limited. On top of this you have your cultural conditioning .Words with attached cultural concepts to allow us to function taught to us since birth by our culture - they are if you like part of our "operating system" yet our operating system does not define the objective reality of the world it merely allows us to interact with it - sometimes in very deluded ways. To you "blood" - to a fly a "refreshing drink" - its all a matter of perspective.
Science for example tells us that there is more nothing in matter than something - ie the distances between subatomic particles are greater than the actual objects themselves - yet we perceive matter as solid - another example of an illusion. Science tells us the world is made of lots of tiny little bits and bobs and waves and electromagnetic radiation most of which we can't perceive at all and what we do perceive we reduce absurdly to allow us to exist and fuinction within the confines of our currently ludicrously materialistic culture. So yes everything we perceive is an illusion - sure you breathe - but what is breathing ? - it is the complex interplay of oxygen, carbon Dioxide etc etc but what is Carbon Dioxide - it is a molecule - what is a molecule ? A molecule is a collection of atoms - and what is an atom ? A collection of subatomic particles some of which can exist as a wave or a particle etc etc You can keep going until you reach the froth that lines the spacetime continuum each bubble of which mathamaticians suspect may be an entire universe flashing in and out of existence . Do you see all this when scratch your *** and drink another cup of coffee - no of course you don't because you live in a total illusion that allows you to function - but don't get annoyed with people who point this out to you - I know its scary - but that doesn't make it any less true.
...and all this is before we even get onto the curious land of quantum physics.

Oxford American Dictionary definition of "Illusion":

a false idea or belief : he had no illusions about the trouble she was in.
• a deceptive appearance or impression : the illusion of family togetherness | the tension between illusion and reality.
• a thing that is or is likely to be wrongly perceived or interpreted by the senses : Zollner's illusion makes parallel lines seem to diverge by placing them on a zigzag-striped background.
PHRASES
be under the illusion that believe mistakenly that : the world is under the illusion that the original painting still hangs in the Winter Palace.
be under no illusion (or illusions) be fully aware of the true state of affairs.
DERIVATIVES
illusional |- zh ənl| adjective
ORIGIN Middle English (in the sense [deceiving, deception] ): via Old French from Latin illusio(n-), from illudere ‘to mock,’ from in- ‘against’ + ludere ‘play.’

Thesaurus
illusion
noun
1 he had destroyed her illusions delusion, misapprehension, misconception, false impression; fantasy, fancy, dream, chimera; fool's paradise, self-deception.
2 the lighting increases the illusion of depth appearance, impression, semblance; misperception, false appearance; rare simulacrum.
3 it's just an illusion mirage, hallucination, apparition, figment of the imagination, trick of the light, trompe l'oeil; deception, trick, smoke and mirrors.
4 Copperfield's amazing illusions (magic) trick, conjuring trick; (illusions) magic, conjuring, sleight of hand, legerdemain.

When each of us deals with the emergent phenomena of, as you suggest, the Quantum Foam, we deal with this phenomenon in a capacity that is equal to the sensitivity of our senses and the accuracy of our education/experience. The only deception visited upon our poor demented perception is just that... our inability to sense the microcosm and, in some cases, the bigger picture. I'm not sure that this inability can be termed "illusion"... although it does bring to mind the fun house at a circus where the eye is tricked into thinking a room carries on some distance when it does not... that is truly an illusion.

I think the general root and meaning of the word "illusion" comes from "illumination" or light or... "visuals"...(actually the origin is stated as being from: Middle English (in the sense [deceiving, deception] ): via Old French from Latin illusio(n-), from illudere ‘to mock,’ from in- ‘against’ + ludere ‘play.’) as in a play on what one can see and how it effects the rest of one's senses.

The very fact remains that our senses are a result of a neuronal structure that resides in our bodies and that this structure reacts to stimulus.

That is no illusion.

How we interpret the stimulus and the reaction of our neurons is up to the individual. You can go around like Chicken Little demanding that everyone see how all stimulus is an illusion... but you will probably end up in Foxy Loxie's cooking pot... in the end.

Addendum: In order to experience an illusion there must be some reality in place to ascertain the experience. The ability to discern between illusion and some other state suggests that there is a structure and a "reality" in place acting as a compliment to the "illusion'. Therefore it would be wise to identify one's illusions and to identify one's realities carefully.

 

[century1800]

Material things invented/created by humankind have an outright explanation of their workings.
Humankind created something out of something that is already there. Humankind perceive things that are already at work. Things work as it was and it is. Humankind investigate, study and utilize things and get educated of its purpose. Things did not work as it is just because humankind discovered them.

Are the working of things just an illusion? If everything we perceive in this world is just an illusion, then we are living in illusion. What are we then?


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“The world is but a show, vain and empty, a mere nothing, bearing the semblance of reality.”
“ …. the world is like the vapor in a desert, which the thirsty dreameth to be water and striveth after it with all his might, until when he cometh unto it, he findeth it to be mere illusion.”

 

[baywax]

“The world is but a show, vain and empty, a mere nothing, bearing the semblance of reality.”
“ …. the world is like the vapor in a desert, which the thirsty dreameth to be water and striveth after it with all his might, until when he cometh unto it, he findeth it to be mere illusion.”

This is a beautiful quote but metaphors will get us nowhere in terms of qualifying and quantifying whether life and living in general is an illusion.

 

[JonF]

I think the op is arguing a bit of a straw man. The claim "everything is an illusion" isn’t really that philosophically relevant, the claim that troubles philosophers “It is possible that everything is an illusion. And even worse, if everything was an illusion I would never know.” This is essentially http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_daemon" whose never really been successfully vanquished by philosophy.

 

[century1800]

…. metaphors will get us nowhere in terms of qualifying and quantifying whether life and living in general is an illusion.
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Who defines illusion? What is the basis of defining something as an illusion?

With the following: How do we perceive ‘life’? How do we perceive ‘living in this world’? Which are illusions and which are not?

- Things that are visible, tangible, material that the sense of touch, smell, taste, hear, and seeing can experience –-- including magic tricks, the sun, tables and chairs .…
- Experiences/qualities/attributes that are non-material, non-tangible --- including justice, love, compassion, magnanimity, nobility ……
- Discoveries/observations that are non-visible (become visible through stimulus) such as gravity, electricity, air, space, any field of discoveries …
- Human potential, latent capacity, understanding, the ability to perceive ….
- Human construction such as establishing a system, exchange and trading, utilizing resources …
- Is learning, acquiring knowledge, education an illusion?

 

[baywax]

ds

…. metaphors will get us nowhere in terms of qualifying and quantifying whether life and living in general is an illusion.
========

Who defines illusion? What is the basis of defining something as an illusion?

With the following: How do we perceive ‘life’? How do we perceive ‘living in this world’? Which are illusions and which are not?

- Things that are visible, tangible, material that the sense of touch, smell, taste, hear, and seeing can experience –-- including magic tricks, the sun, tables and chairs .…
- Experiences/qualities/attributes that are non-material, non-tangible --- including justice, love, compassion, magnanimity, nobility ……
- Discoveries/observations that are non-visible (become visible through stimulus) such as gravity, electricity, air, space, any field of discoveries …
- Human potential, latent capacity, understanding, the ability to perceive ….
- Human construction such as establishing a system, exchange and trading, utilizing resources …
- Is learning, acquiring knowledge, education an illusion?

In the end you need a contrasting state to recognize another state. If we call "reality" a state and "illusion" a state and decide that these two states are in contrast and therefore compliment one another then we can also say that "not everything is an illusion".

To even be able to make that statement (everything is an illusion) we must have knowledge of the opposite of an illusion because we are able to recognize the state of illusion.

Further to the definition of illusion:

an illusion is something that has been deliberately constructed to fool an observer. The word does not apply to our inability to detect the microcosm or the macrocosm.

 

[baywax]

Another observation with regard to the topic:

It may be an illusion that "everything is an illusion".

One has to remember that "reality" is comprised of several, if not an infinite number of, realities. To survive, our species focuses on one of these "realities" and adapts to it as best it can. We may have an unconscious awareness of some of the other levels of reality surrounding the one we have adapted to but, for the most part, we must adhere to the adaptations we have evolved, (or to the mechanisms that nature has evolved) if we are to experience anything such as "reality" and/or "illusion".

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.
-Woody Allen

 

[baywax]

What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.
-Woody Allen

Dear Woody, if nothing exists then that's one thing that exists.