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From: rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Why do mirrors reverse left & right, not up & down?
Message-ID: <537@bbncca.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 1-Feb-84 11:50:10 EST
Article-I.D.: bbncca.537
Posted: Wed Feb  1 11:50:10 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 2-Feb-84 01:29:12 EST
References: <664@dciem.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma.
Lines: 19

Martin Taylor's reply begs the question.  Let's say the mirror reversal
is front-to-back.  The question once again is why does the resultant
front-to-back reversed image in the mirror exchange left and right and
not top and bottom?  (It's not necessary for the viewer to perceiver a
"person" in the image: the left/right exchange is still perceptible
even when viewing the mirror image as an abstract shape.  One could
also put a guitar in front of the mirror and observe the same phenome-
non.)

The question isn't trivial nor are its "answer(s)" easy or evident. It
was the exclusive subject of a "philosophically-oriented" course given
at MIT a few years ago.

As to whether the question is "philosophical", if the attempt to answer
it causes us to think about assumptions or basic ideas we rely on, then
the question certainly has philosophical import.

But thanks for the reply; I hope others will be forthcoming (this mailing
list doesn't show much activity recently).