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Quote by David Smail

“Even for physical science, the ultimate test of whether or not something is true lies in the individual's experience, not in some objectified, dogmatic set of rules. The sensory experiences which are predictable from natural scientific 'laws' permit agreement between individuals because those individuals share very similar physical structures, are persuaded by the same kinds of logical reasoning, and operate with a similar set of values.”

Quote by David Smail

Book:Illusion and Reality: The Meaning of Anxiety
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Illusion and Reality: The Meaning of Anxiety

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David Smail

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“Science is thus not the creation of some kind of mysterious contact with or insight into ultimate reality, but the upshot of our own very human, and even culturally local, interests, concerns, and values. I suspect, also, that we are ready to give particular weight and credence to the 'evidence of our senses' because it is not in our interests to deceive ourselves about its nature (although it is certainly possible to do so).”

RealityScienceResearchEvidenceSensesObjectivitySubjectivity
Book:Illusion and Reality: The Meaning of Anxiety
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“People are obsessed with spectacle. We live in the society of the spectacle. People are addicted to the spectacular. They want bigger and better spectacles. They need more and more to keep them stimulated. They crave entertainment. They crave more powerful simulations, more breathtaking special effects, more everything. No one wants POR – plain old reality. Simulation – hyperreality – the simulacrum – these are what the people desire. We all live in Disneyland now – an utter fantasy world. Our true God is Mickey Mouse. At least he’s a lot nicer than Yahweh.”

RealityFictionFantasyScreensConsumerismFactDisneylandSpectacleHyperrealitySociety Of The Spectacle
Book:Hypersex
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“It takes no effort to miss the friends we didn’t make and the work we didn’t do and the people we didn’t marry and the children we didn’t have. It is not difficult to see yourself through the kens of other people, and to wish you were all the different kaleidoscopic versions of you they wanted you to be. It is easy to regret, and keep regretting, as infinitum, until our time runs out.”

LifeRealityRegretPresentMoment
Book:The Midnight Library
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“Lying in bed with his eyes open, he searched the shadows around him, trying to find some steadying, reassuring objects. But the reality was at least as threatening as the nightmares. Having swallowed up all of the familiar shapes of the furniture, the darkness took on the aspect of some unearthly challenge: within this nothingness something monstrous and unknown was surely being spawned. The room had become a kind of breeding ground for monsters.”

RealityDarknessMonstersShadowsNightmares
Book:The Tenant
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“In qualunque angolo dell'universo troviamo vertiginosi pozzi di strati di realtà. In questi strati siamo riusciti a riconoscere regolarità, sulle quali abbiamo raccolto informazione rilevante per noi, che ci permette di farci un'immagine coerente dei singoli strati. Ciascuno è un'approssimazione. La realtà non è divisa in livelli. I livelli in cui la scomponiamo, gli oggetti in cui la dividiamo, sono i modi in cui la Natura si correla in noi, in quelle configurazioni dinamiche di eventi fisici nel nostro cervello che chiamiamo concetti. La separazione della realtà in livelli è relativa al nostro modo di interagire con essa.”

RealityScienceQuantum TheoryRepresentations
Book:Helgoland
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