Direct Realism

Question 1

Direct realism

Answer 1

The immediate objects of perception are mind-independent objects and their properties

Question 2

Argument from common sense

Answer 2

• most basic intution is that we perceive mind-independent objects and their properties
• doesn’t prove we do, but it means other theories of perception claim that basic intution is incorrect
• direct realism fits perfectly with our basic intuition

Question 3

Issue of illusion

Answer 3

• In illusions we are perceiving mind-independent objects with properties they don’t in fact have
• shows that direct realism must be false

Question 4

Response to the issue of illusion

Answer 4

• when a stick is half submerged in water looks crooked, there is nothing that is crooked
• the stick itself has the relational property of looking crooked when half submerged in water, and yet simultaneously has the non-relational property of being straight
• sometimes we perceive the properties that MIPO have that dont related to how they’re being perceived -> sometimes we perceiver the properties that MIPO have that do related to how they are being perceived

Question 5

Issue of perceptual variation

Answer 5

• Direct realisms claim
• yet the immediate objects of perception can vary without any change in the so called ‘mind-independent object’, just by altering the perceptual variation (viewing a table from different angles)

Question 6

Response to perceptual variation

Answer 6

• some of the perceived propelires of the mind-independent object are relational, which means that they are properties the mind-independent object has in relation to being perceived
• we could say the ‘real’ property of a table, is the one normal observers perceive under normal conditions

Question 7

Issue of hallucinations

Answer 7

• in the case of hallucinations the immediate object of perception is not actually a mind-dependent object at all, simply not even there even though we thought it to be
• hallucinations can be subjectively indistinguishable from veridical perceptions
• if two perceptual experiences are subjectively indistinguishable, the best explanation for this is that they are perceptual variations of the same thing
• therefore both hallucinations and veridical perceptions the immediate objects must be mind-dependent objects (sense data)
• therefore direct realism is false

Question 8

Response to hallucinations

Answer 8

• veridical perceptions are perceptions that are true
• hallucinations are not veridical perceptions, they are a different type of mental state, in hallucinations we dont perceive, we imagine
• the fact that hallucinations are subjectively indistinguishable from veridical perceptions does not tell us anything significant about veridical perceptions
• the DR theory is about veridical perceptions not hallucinations, so what happens in them is irrelevant to DR
• hallucinations are not a threat to direct realism

Question 9

Time-lag issue

Answer 9

• it takes time of light and sound waves to travel from the so-called mind-independent objects to the perceiver
• how are we seeing things before we’re supposed to see them?

Question 10

Response to time-lag issue

Answer 10

• confusion between how we perceive and what we perceive
• its part of the equipment of perception, not the thing that perception is used on