(2025-02-23, 04:17 PM)nbtruthman Wrote: The dictionary definition of phenomenalism is "...the doctrine that human knowledge is confined to or founded on the realities or appearances presented to the senses."
The problem with this philosophy is that it appears to be verging on physicalism in that it ties real knowledge to the evidence of the physical senses. It ignores a boatload of empirical evidence that human knowledge can derive from spiritual experiences - the many well-known instances of perception beyond the physical senses, perceptions made apparently by the immaterial soul or spirit during paranormal experiences such as veridical NDE OBEs and cases of the reincarnation type (CORTs).
I think the dictionary definition doesn't quite capture what Mill - who came up with the metaphysics - was aiming for.
That said, I think it feels more like a sketch of an idea than something that fully works. I wouldn't even go to the paranormal, I think it mistakenly conflates thoughts and reasoning with experiences.
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
(This post was last modified: 2025-02-23, 08:02 PM by Sciborg_S_Patel. Edited 1 time in total.)
- Bertrand Russell