Someone said to me: “If the hand is imagined, how do I wipe my ass every day?”
Wow. That is such a graphically humorous koan. If there is no thinking, however, the answer is obvious.
Where, precisely, would you locate the line that divides your "hand" from your arm? I'm sure you don't imagine that your hand extends to your shoulder, so where, precisely is that line of demarcation? Looking at _________ I don;t see any boundary lines anywhere.
Everyone knows that lines of longitude and latitude are imaginary. If we are travelling across the ocean on a liner, we do not expect to see such lines on the water. In the same way, most people understand that the boundaries of states are imaginary. If we walked north from Nashville, TN, about forty miles we would not expect to see a line on the ground when we got to the boundary of Kentucky. The line is imaginary.
It is much harder to realize that the boundary lines that distinguish a table or a chair from their surroundings are just as imaginary. We are so used to thinking (imagining) that tables and chairs are separate physical things that we forget the boundaries are in our heads in exactly the same way as all other boundaries.
From the nature of the a$$-wiping question I'm wondering if the function of cognition/imagination is fully understood.
Wow. That is such a graphically humorous koan. If there is no thinking, however, the answer is obvious.
Where, precisely, would you locate the line that divides your "hand" from your arm? I'm sure you don't imagine that your hand extends to your shoulder, so where, precisely is that line of demarcation? Looking at _________ I don;t see any boundary lines anywhere.
Everyone knows that lines of longitude and latitude are imaginary. If we are travelling across the ocean on a liner, we do not expect to see such lines on the water. In the same way, most people understand that the boundaries of states are imaginary. If we walked north from Nashville, TN, about forty miles we would not expect to see a line on the ground when we got to the boundary of Kentucky. The line is imaginary.
It is much harder to realize that the boundary lines that distinguish a table or a chair from their surroundings are just as imaginary. We are so used to thinking (imagining) that tables and chairs are separate physical things that we forget the boundaries are in our heads in exactly the same way as all other boundaries.
From the nature of the a$$-wiping question I'm wondering if the function of cognition/imagination is fully understood.
