Thread: What is an object?

Is an object only, the characteristics that make it up, creating the object? Or, is the object itself, a pendelum on which the characters stand. Is the object apart of everything that makes it up, or is it solely the things to sum to it?

Is an Oak tree, the leaves, bark, branches, and roots that add up to make it, or is the tree itself also a part of the group?

This could be closely related with colour, when you look at something that's blue, you see all the colours except for that particular color. A visible colour is the absence of that colour, right?

So, is an object like colour? Not in the sence of absence, but, in the sense that only everything that makes it up, is what it is? Or, is the object itself, a piece in which its characters stand?

If you look at the color spectrum, there are no lines between two different colors except the ones the mind imposes in order to make sense of the world through categorization and conceptualization. The same is true of objects, there is no adherent beginning and end to an object. We impose lines to make sense of things. This is the left brain's job, while the right brain continues to perceive the whole. This doesn't necessarily mean that the categorization is less genuine than unbiased perception. That would be to claim there are no particles, only waves. The truth is a bit more nuanced than that. When quantum physicists tests for particles, they see particles. When they test for waves, they get waves.

But regarding the actual labeling of objects, it is objectively arbitrary and impossible to measure where objects separate or whether the gestalt is something unique to itself. One can only measure which concept of reality is easiest to navigate.

Categorization and conceptualization.. Our brain trying to make sense of item, therefore constructing lines to abide to the process, right? I love your answer, Original; your view on this topic has enlightened me, and it was very intruiguing. Thanks for the input!

It's a conceptual entity to make a part of experience usefully distinct.

Originally Posted by SilverJay

Is an object only, the characteristics that make it up, creating the object? Or, is the object itself, a pendelum on which the characters stand. Is the object apart of everything that makes it up, or is it solely the things to sum to it?

Is an Oak tree, the leaves, bark, branches, and roots that add up to make it, or is the tree itself also a part of the group?

This could be closely related with colour, when you look at something that's blue, you see all the colours except for that particular color. A visible colour is the absence of that colour, right?

So, is an object like colour? Not in the sence of absence, but, in the sense that only everything that makes it up, is what it is? Or, is the object itself, a piece in which its characters stand?

Looks like somebody needs a quick lesson in intro-physics.

Colors are radiation that is being emitted from an atom. All other wavelengths are absorbed. If you input a wavelength of light (in the visible-UV range), if the atom can, it will absorb exactly enough energy to excite it electronically. When the electron goes back to a lower state, radiation is emitted at a wavelength that is exactly the difference in energy between where it got excited to and where it relaxed to.

When you see a color, you are really experiencing the wavelength or set of wavelengths that compose that color, not "every color but that color."

I was going to post but then Abra did it. This keeps happening.

Regarding philosophy, though; you're using the word 'object' to communicate whatever concept you personally mean by that. That's how words work; they designate concepts you want to communicate. How can we tell you what you mean by your own words? You're the one communicating, so you should give a definition for us. If you don't have a definition... what is it that you are referring to? That doesn't make sense, you must have had something in mind to pose the question.

I believe you missed the point, Xei. The point, in my mind, is to study the difference between the reality we conceptualize in order to communicate to others, and actual reality.

I would have to go empiricist on this one and say that an object is an idea created by the mind. I think that distinct objects are a product of the mind, like Kant said. The mind takes the natural world and creates ideas of objects from it.