by “If only the mind were directed and disciplined by correct method”
In terms of mechanical philosophy Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, and Hooke acknowledged how nature had a certain method attached to its beauty. How the real world didn’t just consist of things, but things existed and functioned for a purpose. They believed that the mind must be trained to acknowledge the methods and quantifiable subjects that the our world belonged to. Moreover, natural philosophers were criticized for having a theory without having any supporting evidence in which Bacon states that “if the foundation was weak, the building erected on it would be shaky.” Deduction was simply not enough. Even though there was a fair argument to sensory experiences from the modernist perspective, I ultimately agree that these natural senses were made to deceive us from the truth. The moon was the first visual example used in “The Scientific Revolution” to help convince readers of the argument. Without mathematics or physics, one would continue to believe that the size of the moon was relatively large compared to the sun. Indeed, the invention of the telescope did not help humans gain another sense, but it furthered a correction and curation of it. After nearly 400 years, instead of assisting us, some natural humans sense still misguide us in many respects. Using real world examples, I believe the modernist approach to finding the truth through intuition and ‘gut’ is misleading when compared to finding the experimental truth of the amazing phenomenon of the human body.
For example, I remember during the beginning of my freshman year, there was a show for a hypnotist. I had never experienced one so I was curious as to what would happen. At the end, I enjoyed his performance and he made a selected few people do some crazy things. However, I remember one particular trick that he made the entire audience do at the beginning in order to measure their capacity to be hypnotized. In fact, you (the reader) can try this at home. First, you should interlock the fingers of your left and right hand together, with your wrist pointing towards the ground and fingers pointed up. Second, take your left and right index fingers and point them up and touch them together. Third, take both index fingers and try to separate them as much as possible from each other. If you hold that position for a while, you may notice that you start to naturally feel your fingers moving closer and closer together. It isn’t a feeling of discomfort or stiffness, but it seems like your body naturally brings the fingers closer to each other like a magnet.
The hypnotist at Colby did this exact experiment but accompanied the experiment with words that encouraged the subject to focus on the space between the fingers as the poles of a magnet. Every time he said the word ‘closer,’ my fingers did what he commanded. I was in shock and disbelief. I started to actually think he was a magician. In reality, this trick is called the ‘magnetic fingers’ and is a very common method of testing subjects of their current mental vulnerability. After extensive research, I found that this trick actually takes advantage of focal dystonia– a neurological phenomenon in where muscle groups contract in abnormal postures. In the sensorimotor cortex in the brain, there are specific muscles that are ordered to contract for function, which turns off muscles that oppose the intended movement. In a broader sense, it creates a loss of selectivity.
This was one personal example that I experienced in my life of how it is important that one does not take everything they experience as an actual truth of the world. Indeed, if I did not do any further research into focal dystonia, I would have continued to live my life believing that hypnotists could manipulate us at will.
Another short example of sense deception is in the sport of boxing. If you take your hand and rub your chin, you’ll noticed how defined it is compared to other skeletal structures in your body. The base is very thick and the surrounding bone in the jaw feels quite sturdy. Compared to other exposed bones in your body such as the ribs or fingers, it seems as though the jaw is a pretty strong. However, what if I told you the tip of jaw is actually one of the most vulnerable parts of the body. Relative to other parts of the head, the chin is densely compacted with nerves and most people who get hit in that area with substantial force blackout. The brain literally shuts down in order to protect you from any further harm. That’s the reason why in boxing, many knockouts are caused by uppercuts to the chin. To the untrained eye, the uppercuts merely graze the chin and will knock out even the heaviest of opponents to the ground. Again, without neurology and scientific evidence, we would not know why a hit to the lower jaw is such an effective and common finishing move in boxing.
In conclusion, senses are helpful in our survival but cannot further our understanding of the actual world around us. I am not dismissing the design of humans (there are many unique things humans can do like the ability to see visible light and enjoy sex), but rather I am questioning the design in comparison to our intelligence and intuition. I do believe our intuition plays a big role in decision making but it still doesn’t help us understand the natural world around us. In the contemporary era of flat-earthers and people who deny climate change, we must try and reach scientific consensus in all fields to better society.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_dystonia#:~:text=Focal%20dystonia%20is%20a%20neurological,or%20extend%20outward%20without%20control.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uppercut#:~:text=The%20uppercut%20(formerly%20known%20as,the%20statistics%20as%20power%20punches.
https://www.rochypnosis.com/blog/magnetic-fingers-experiment#:~:text=The%20magnetic%20fingers%20experiment%20is,for%20suggestibility%20of%20a%20subject.&text=The%20hypnotist%20asks%20subject%20to,inch%20and%20a%20half%20apart.