What is the "touch model of perception"?

This metaphysical grasp of inochi (life) further implies that our recognition of inochi beings would be different from the standard subject-object congnition model. For example, when I perceive something, traditional philosophical theories teach us that this perception is achieved by sense-data or qualia traveling from the object to my sensory organs and finally arriving at my brain. This means that cognition is achieved in a one-way direction from the object to the subject, and that the subject and the object are completely different in essence. This is the basic idea of congnition models. [109/110] However, in the case of inochi, we should take account of another factor, that is to say, the fact that both the object and the subject are inochi (life) beings. In other words, this perception model must be such that an inochi being perceives another inochi being. This means that the perceiver and the perceived are equal in existence from the viewpoint of inochi. Therefore, in the perception model of inochi the cognition must be attained by some kind of combination of two inochi beings, the perceiver and the perceived.

The particle and stream model of inochi thus would be implemental in the construction of another model of perception. Let us once again consider the case of the flower. I am an inochi being in the form of a particle, and the flower takes the form of another. When two particles face each other, a stream forms a bridge between them, and the two particles are combined by a flowing stream penetrating them both. When two particles of inochi touch each other in the form of a stream, I call this the ‘touch model of perception’ (62). Toriyama used the word ‘touch’ in the title of her book Touching Inochi (1985) to indicate that inochi is not an object which can be looked at, but should be touched and felt. However, here it should be noted that in our model particles do not touch each other directly, but that they touch each other in the form of streams passing between them. Hopefully, in the future, this model will constitute a theory of cognition: one that confronts the philosophy and psychology of cognition which has thus far proved insufficiently comprehensive (63,64).

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The Concept of Inochi, Part 2
(1991)
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