Does anyone have any idea what that lecture Puff was listening to was? I'm talking about the one recorded by the well-spoken British woman, heard when Puff is reading Moby-Dick in his lucite "digs," then, later, over the credits at the end of the movie, having to do with the perception of objects whether near or far, abstract shape or shadow, relationships between elements, etc. Interesting, but what is it?
shareI wondered the same myself and was hoping to find a write up in the Trivia section - but alas nothing. Hopefully a psychology major will recognize the blurb from some textbook (my best guess) and enlighten us.
shareNot psychology, but philosophy. During the closing credits, the first two extracts come from late medieval and Renaissance works on epistemology. The first, "When some things are known, of which one inheres in the other..." is from (an English translation of) the prologue of William of Ockham's Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. The second, "In establishing axioms by this kind of induction..." is from Francis Bacon's First Book of Aphorisms, number 106.
I suppose the point is that while animals perceive things immediately (literally, "without mediation"), we humans see the world mirrored in a web of words and ideas that separate us from our natural senses and impulses. By choosing philosophers who produced particularly abstract and wordy descriptions the character of direct experience, Kaufman makes light of the ironic nature of such efforts.