Seeing Things as Theories

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"He registered a dizzy 7.6 mmv over Brodmann 32, the area of abstractive activity. Since that time I have learned that her reading over 6 generally means that a person has so abstracted himself from himself and from the world around him, seeing things as theories and himself as a shadow, that he cannot, so to speak, reenter the lovely ordinary world. Instead he orbits the earth and himself. Such a person, and there are millions, is destined to haunt the human condition like the Flying Dutchman." -- Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins, p. 34

Compare with:

“Descartes, Locke, and Newton, took away the world... Berkeley restored the world. Berkeley has brought us back to the world that only exist because it shines and sounds.” -- W.B. Yeats

Comments

  1. Samson Corwell2:58 PM

    Can you give an example of seeing the world as theory?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. gcallah5:15 PM

      Sure: thinking that the theories of physics are the real world, and the one we live in is some sort of illusion.

      Delete

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