[beppe]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Hi Beppe, welcome

I agree that we can never see reality directly.

directly or indirectly, there is no way we can perceive (describe, represent,...) it completely as it is ever changing and undefinable complex.

But in my opinion, as a daughter of the 20th century informed, among other things, by the Enlightenment (les lumières), is that if we want to understand reality, we have to start with what we can see and feel, build a theory around it, and then confront that theory with facts, preferably through experiment (since facts, as we perceive them, can be untrustworthy).

What you obtain is just the assessment of some limits of the theory in question. Very little to do with reality

Our perception is incomplete, we must challenge it and put it to the test continuously, but it's our only entrance point to reality.

that's for sure

Plato's conclusion from the same premise, as I understand it, is to drop the perceived reality completely in favor of an imagined higher reality, that cannot be tested or proved. The only proof Plato ever offers is something along the line of "if most men think it is so, then it must be so", or even worse, a proof by analogy.

I am not really interested in discussing Plato as such, here and now, but in recognizing the actuality of the screen tale.

Great stuff ! I am so happy! It is a great pleasure for me, adept of Francis Bacon to cross horns with the French school.