Perception Flashcards
What is Direct Realism?
The Theory that immediate objects of perception are mind-independent objects and their qualities
What is Indirect Realism?
The Theory that immediate objects of perception are mind dependent objects, and represent mind-independent objects and their qualities
What is Idealism?
The Theory that the immediate objects of perception are mind dependent objects
What is Sense Data?
The immediate object of our perception according to Indirect Realism. It is mind dependent and is caused by and resembles mind independent objects beyond the Veil of Perception.
Objections to Direct Realism?
Argument from Illusion/ Argument from Hallucination/ Argument from Perceptual Variation/ Time Lag Argument
Objections to Indirect Realism?
Sceptical Worry/ The Involuntary nature of Experience/ The coherence of various kinds of Experience/ Likeness Principle
Objections to Idealism?
The role of God/ Argument from Hallucination/ Solipsism
What is Berkeley’s Master Argument?
The idea is that we cannot actually conceive of mind independent objects that are unperceived and unthought of, because in order to conceive of their existence, we must be perceiving/thinking of them ourselves.
What are Primary Qualities?
Qualities of an object that are not related to a perceiver., These are Mind-Independent, and consist of Shape, Quantity and Solidity.
What are Secondary Qualities?
Qualities of an object that are related to a perceiver. These are Mind Dependent, and consist of Colour, Taste, Smell and Value
What is the Veil of Perception?
The hypothetical veil between us and reality. We can never directly perceive reality as it mind-independently is as the word is directly inaccessible to our senses (Indirect Realist)
What is God’s Role in Berkeley’s Idealism?
According to Berkeley, God is the ultimate, solitary perceiver, who can see everything. Berkeley claims that God is the only reasonable cause of our sensations because our own mind can be subject to illusion or hallucination, and a Mind Independent World can be dismissed via the Master Argument.
What is the Argument from the Involuntary Nature of Experience?
Locke’s Argument that you can control your imagination (a snowflake, a laughing dinosaur etc.) but you can’t control your sensations (the person in front of me with pink hair), so these sensations must be “produced in my mind by some exterior cause,”- Sense Data are not “playthings of my imagination,”
What is Solipsism?
The idea that the all we can know is that the self exists. It is impossible for us to conceive of a mind-independent tree, meaning it is also impossible to conceive of anything external to myself. If everything exists only as a product of one’s own perception, then it becomes difficult to justify the existence of other minds and an external world independently of one’s own.
What is the Argument from the coherence of various kinds of experience?
Locke’s Argument that because our senses cohere regarding the existence of Mind Independent Objects, then there is good enough evidence to suggest that Mind-Independent Object exists, giving us good evidence for the general existence of mind-independent objects.
