It is your brain that does it? (Sunday Forum)

by Ynot , Sunday, February 01, 2009, 10:54 (1571 days ago) @ James

James, thank you for this appetising introduction to Clive Hamilton's book that Brian has been writing about for so long. You seem to have given us a good outline of the argument. I need some time to think through the options.

One question before we start: only a trifle, but the example of the sun or moon rising seeming to be larger, etc. has got me baffled. Is there a reference where we could find an explanation of what the brain is doing, and how this has been demonstrated, etc.? I know it's only an example, but like a pebble in the shoe at the start of a long walk, it demands attention first...

Kant did not have the scientific tools to find out what is the difference between the two, and what is the extent of this innate knowledge. In the last 50 or so years, neuroscience and evolutionary psychology studies are starting to provide us with at least some answers.

For example, when the sun or moon comes up over the horizon, it looks much larger than when they are high up in the sky. I always had accepted the explanation that it had something to do with the volume of atmosphere that you were looking through and that this had a magnifying effect. Not so apparently. It is your brain that does it, and we cannot avoid it. The reason the brain does it is because it has been very useful for man to know how far a charging elephant is away from him than a rat up close that might otherwise occupy the same volume at the back of the retina.

Maybe someone knows of such a reference.
Thanks for your work,
Tony.

'TonyL
"A post is a free gift, and it will go where it pleases."'