The self as lens: Leibniz's lens-like model of perception and reality. Although I cannot find a direct reference in Leibniz's writings, they have not all been translated. Nevertheless Leibniz's model of perception is seemingly based on the high technology of the 17th century, Huygen's microscope. The indirect reference to the perceiver as based on the lens of a microscope, which can represent a field of view at a single point, as a unity,, as a perceiver or self must do Leibniz's conceptioon of reality was similar to this :
"Reality cannot be found except in One single source, because of the interconnection of all things with one another. I do not conceive of any reality at all as without genuine unity. (Gottfried Leibniz, 1670) This single point in the perceiver and in reality itself is reflected in Leibniz's monad (which represents the many in the one), Plato's model of the One, the concepts of white and black holes and the twistor in Penrose's physics.. Leibniz's monadology itself can be used to derive the self as lens, since a person can be focused down to be represented by a monad, which cAn be understood as a point homunculus (the perceiver). It is also well known that Leibniz referred to the myriad of microscopic organisms seen in a microscope as vderying his view of the world as the many in the one (the monad). Dr. Roger B Clough NIST (ret.) [1/1/2000] See my Leibniz site at http://independent.academia.edu/RogerClough -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
