Perception

Question 1

Direct realism

Answer 1

o The metaphysical thesis: The external world exists independently of the
mind (hence, realism)
o The epistemological thesis: We perceive the external world
directly (hence, direct)

Question 2

The fallibility of perception

Answer 2

We can usually correct misleading perceptions
Perception is a fallible way of gaining knowledge

Question 3

Indirect realism

Answer 3

o The metaphysical thesis: The external world exists independently of the mind (hence, realism)
o The epistemological thesis: We perceive the external world via mental intermediaries (hence, indirect)

Question 4

Primary and secondary qualities John Locke

Answer 4

Primary qualities are mind independent: Size shape motion number
Secondary qualities are mind depndent: Color taste smell feel

Question 5

Further problem for indirect realism

Answer 5

What if the gap is too wide to be bridged by inference?
It is possible that how the world appears to me is drastically different from how the world really is

Question 6

Idealism

Answer 6

Idealism is the view composed of two theses:
o Metaphysical thesis: There is no external world independent of minds, All that exists are ideas or bundles of ideas (anti-realism)
o Epistemological thesis: The immediate objects of perception are ideas

The world is constituted by perceptual experience

Question 7

Transcendental idealism

Answer 7

Kant agrees that we cannot pierce the veil of perception

But he does not think that the world consists of mere ideas

Rather, he accepts the epistemological constraint on perception: The thing-in-itself is unknowable through experience

However, we can “intuit” (anschauen) how objects appear to us through subjective forms of intuition

Mind 2 faculties
Receptivity concerns experience (or sensibility)
Spontaneity concerns reason and understanding

While we can not know the external world itself we can infer it as there must be something that affects ouor experiencee