Distinguishing EOP from Wrong Conceptions of It

Here I wish to distinguish the evolution of perception concept (EOP) from some assumptions about it that I’ve heard people express who were confused when I tried to explain it.

First of all, let’s be clear that EOP begins on the premise that the following four observations are true. 

1. We perceive the world with our five senses that include sight, touch, smell, sound, and taste.
2. Physical things are solid. 
3. There are natural laws that govern nature.
4. Each person perceives the same world. It is not some subjective hallucination in one person’s head.

Now, on hearing EOP explained for the first time, some people begin to fear that the concept must disagree with one or the other of these four observations. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Why people think EOP might not agree with these common sense observations is that it can sound like it is saying:

that things are in someone’s head.

Actually, the idea that things are in anyone’s head is something I directly disputed in Evolution of Perception Re-Explained (2021) pp. 60, 61.

that things are not solid, but gaseous or something.

Actually, not only does EOP accept that solid objects are solid, but explains the physics that make them so, and explains why those physics are universal.

that EOP disputes that we perceive the world.

Actually, the opposite is true. EOP begins upon the assumption that the physical world is made up of the objects we perceive with our senses, and gives an account of it that explains why we perceive it, something missing from materialist science. For those who don’t know, materialist science still cannot explain how we consciously perceive things. 

that EOP doesn’t acknowledge the laws of physics.

Actually, not only does EOP acknowledge that the known laws of physics universally apply to all the things we observe, but it goes a step further and gives the first account of why and how they do so. For those who don’t know, this is another thing that materialist science has been unable to explain.

EOP states that the world is fundamentally perceptual. However, it is not the perception that occurs in an individual. Your body is in the world of perceived phenomena. The world of perceived phenomena is not in your body. Also, things are solid and obey the laws of physics because those laws are fundamentally laws of perception.

See Evolution of Perception Re-Explained: A Radical New View of Reality.