PERCEPTION- Issues With Direct Realism: Illusion Flashcards
What is an illusion
Our senses distort the true nature of physical reality so what we perceive is not what the world is actually like
What is an example of an illusion
A straw half-immersed in a glass of water will at a certain angle appear broken or bent.
We are directly aware that the straw looking bent and cannot doubt the way it appears to us.
However we can still be confident that the straw is not actually broken or bent.
What do cases of illusion tell us
If the way cases are not how the world actually is, the we must conclude that the immediate objects of perception cannot be material objects. Therefore we are forced to distinguish appearances from reality.
How can the illusion argument be written as
P1) when subject to an illusion an object appears to the perceived to have a particular property (e.g. the straw is bent)
P2) The perceiver is directly aware of this apparent property
P3) but the object doesn’t have this property in reality (the straw isn’t actually bent)
C1) so what the perceive is directly aware of (bent straw) and reality (straight straw) are distinct
C2) therefor direct realism is false, we don’t perceive objects directly
