sensory apparatus

Being sure that two people seeing what they each call ‘red’ have the same experience when they of it, Nagel effectively argues, is ultimately as impossible as it would be for us to know what it is like to be a bat, having an entire sensory apparatus we lack.

It is the first time that an animal has been able to use the sensory apparatus of another to sense and respond accurately to the world and is one indication of how flexible the brain can be in integrating outside brain cells.

There is no evidence that the universe was made with us in mind, but by good fortune we seem to have the sensory apparatus and the mental capacities required to make a start on understanding it; and over the last 600 years we have fashioned the intellectual and material tools needed to make progress in our understanding.

Moreover, by expanding our range of vision, the telescope and microscope made it easier to recognize the limitations of our sensory apparatus when deprived of artificial aids.

Or was it peculiar to his peculiar biological identity, a freak generated by his inept sensory apparatus?