Page 252 - For Men of Understanding

All we see in our lives is formed in a part of our brain called the "vision centre" which lies at
the back of our brain, and which occupies only a few cubic centimetres. Both the book you
are now reading and the boundless landscape you see when you gaze at the horizon fit into
this tiny space. Therefore, we see objects not in their actual sizes existing outside, but in the
sizes perceived by our brain.

Some people perceive blue as green, others red as blue, and still others see all
colours as different tones of grey. At this point, it no longer matters whether
the outside object is coloured or not.

The prominent Irish thinker George Berkeley also addressed this point:
First, . . . it was thought that colour, figure, motion, and the rest of the sen-
sible qualities or accidents, did really exist without the mind; . . . But, it hav-
ing been shewn that none even of these can possibly exist otherwise than
in a Spirit or Mind which perceives them it follows that we have no longer
any reason to suppose the being of Matter. . . 5
In conclusion, we see colours not because objects are coloured or because
they have a material existence outside ourselves, but because all the qualities
we ascribe to objects are inside us, not in the "external world."
In that case, how can we claim to have complete knowledge of "the exter-
nal world?”

250 For Men of Understanding