Why Is a White Wall Not a Mirror?

in #philosophy5 years ago (edited)

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Why is a white wall not a mirror?
Why is a mirror?

Polish, silver, glass, liquid, density or crystal lattice?
A computer screen when off reflects,
but can't when it's on? Like now.

Is a mirror transparent?
Would an entirely black object -absorbing all light-
Appear in a mirror it faced, or would there be two absences?
If it appears in a mirror -an absence of anything to reflect-
is reflection even what a mirror does? Does a mirror do two things?
Maybe it would appear entirely white in the mirror,
Or perhaps there'd be no mirror there and in its place an object shaped transparency;
The "mirror" there "transformed" temporarily into clear glass or, still more astonishingly, clear metal if the mirror were made of metal?!
What reason do i have to think one result more likely than another?

If it appears there as an absence of light in the shape of the object it is,
it can't be reflection that got it there, Or
Reflection reflects something else in addition to light.
But what is there besides light to reflect? Experience?
Do we have it all wrong? - Does a mirror reflect experience?

If instead the object would appear all white, then what does that entail?
If i stand as a mirror facing an object like that, reflecting back white in the shape of the object,
Then another light touches me and i reflect it back. So what does that mean
When the angle of light is wrong?
It feels like it means that location isn't what it appears to be, and i as the mirror, in this odd circumstance, am in a position to know that. Or that the light that i reflect in the shape of the object comes from every angle, but that pretty much amounts to the same thing.

But if i were transparent there i would be a window through which the object could look, or
Might be looked upon.
No, i don't think that's possible. If a mirror is truly a mirror, and reflection is what it does,
Then it can't ever cease to reflect, and then go back to reflecting, or it wouldn't be truly a mirror.
If there were a mirror with no border and that's all that there was besides another just like it,
And they faced one another, and if you were completely invisible and then got in between them to have a look, what do you think you would see?

To be continued.