Something that resonated with me about Parmenides was his view on sense perceptions. I can't quite put my finger on who said this (99% sure it was Galileo, though), but there has been plenty of thought on the senses being deceiving.
Galileo had the machine example, where he argued that we cannot trust our senses because things are not accurately represented by what they look/feel/sound/hear/taste like. We could be looking at a person and think it is a person, when in fact it is nothing but a machine. On the one hand, this is true and I have to agree with it, but on the other hand I can't fully get behind such a skeptical point of view.
Descartes had the same view. MIssed you in class!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, its a bit of a jump from (1) our senses *sometimes* deceive us to (2) our sense are untrustworthy. At the same time, doubt is a powerful thing...although on some readings of Descrates he unintentionally demonstrates that radical doubt simply isn't possible. Finally, Thomas Reid has a nice take on this whole issue: if you're going to doubt your senses you ought to doubt reason too. They came from the same "shop," so to speak.
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