Oct 23, 2026 01:06 PM
(This post was last modified: Oct 23, 2026 07:01 PM by Magical Realist.)
The idea of consensus being a sure establishment of what is objectively true and real is basically wrong. The only reason there is a consensus on certain states and ideas and phenomena among humans is because they are all the same, with the same brains and sensory organs and physical environments and languages. The unique and subjective Umwelt of a hairless bipedal language-using primate. Which no more means their consensually-shared experience is objectively true than that the consensually-shared experience of octopi is objectively true. It's how for us water is something we drink but for octopi it's something they breathe and live inside of. In the end there are as many consensually-shared and subjective interpretations of being-in-the-world (their Umwelts) as there are conscious creatures.
"The German term used to describe the unique, subjective perceptual world of a specific animal is Umwelt.
Coined by the pioneering biologist Jakob von Uexküll in 1909, it literally translates to "environment" or "surrounding world," but in science and philosophy, it specifically refers to the unique "sensory bubble" that an organism inhabits based on its specific biological senses."--Google AI
"Agamben goes on to paraphrase Uexküll's example of the tick, saying:
'...this eyeless animal finds the way to her watchpoint [at the top of a tall blade of grass] with the help of only its skin’s general sensitivity to light. The approach of her prey becomes apparent to this blind and deaf bandit only through her sense of smell. The odor of butyric acid, which emanates from the sebaceous follicles of all mammals, works on the tick as a signal that causes her to abandon her post (on top of the blade of grass/bush) and fall blindly downward toward her prey. If she is fortunate enough to fall on something warm (which she perceives by means of an organ sensible to a precise temperature) then she has attained her prey, the warm-blooded animal, and thereafter needs only the help of her sense of touch to find the least hairy spot possible and embed herself up to her head in the cutaneous tissue of her prey. She can now slowly suck up a stream of warm blood.' "------- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umwelt
"The German term used to describe the unique, subjective perceptual world of a specific animal is Umwelt.
Coined by the pioneering biologist Jakob von Uexküll in 1909, it literally translates to "environment" or "surrounding world," but in science and philosophy, it specifically refers to the unique "sensory bubble" that an organism inhabits based on its specific biological senses."--Google AI
"Agamben goes on to paraphrase Uexküll's example of the tick, saying:
'...this eyeless animal finds the way to her watchpoint [at the top of a tall blade of grass] with the help of only its skin’s general sensitivity to light. The approach of her prey becomes apparent to this blind and deaf bandit only through her sense of smell. The odor of butyric acid, which emanates from the sebaceous follicles of all mammals, works on the tick as a signal that causes her to abandon her post (on top of the blade of grass/bush) and fall blindly downward toward her prey. If she is fortunate enough to fall on something warm (which she perceives by means of an organ sensible to a precise temperature) then she has attained her prey, the warm-blooded animal, and thereafter needs only the help of her sense of touch to find the least hairy spot possible and embed herself up to her head in the cutaneous tissue of her prey. She can now slowly suck up a stream of warm blood.' "------- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umwelt