But you also expect the book to have its own independent existence behind those appearances. So when you put the book down on the coffee table, walk into the kitchen, or leave your house to go to work, you expect the book still looks, feel, and smells just as it did when you were holding it.
Expecting objects to have their own independent existence – independent of us and any other objects – is actually a deep-seated assumption we make about the world.
This assumption
has its origin in the scientific revolution of the 17th century and is
part of what we call the mechanistic worldview. According to this view,
the world is like a giant clockwork machine whose parts are governed by
set laws of motion....<<<Read More>>>...