Three views of Perception

Question 1

What is direct or naive realism?

Answer 1

The belief that the world is exactly as we perceive it

Question 2

What is indirect realism?

Answer 2

The world is not as it appears to be, we can only have indirect contact with things in the world, however we can make inferences

Question 3

What is idealism?

Answer 3

There are no mind-independent things. What we perceive is all in our minds.

Question 4

What are the problems with direct or naive realism

Answer 4

• there are instances of perceptual error, such as hallucinations
• many properties that seem independent from our minds are actually only in our minds

Question 5

What are primary properties?

Answer 5

qualities that exist permanently in an object that are independent of our own perception. Such as shape and length

Question 6

What are secondary properties?

Answer 6

qualities that do not exist in the object, but rather in our perception of the object. Such as colour and smell.

Question 7

What are some problems with indirect realism

Answer 7

• poses difficulty to empiricism as it removes the real world from our direct perceptions of it
• suggests that we cannot have knowledge of the real world via our senses, and that we can only make inferences which may lead pure empiricism to skepticism
• as well as the fa t that distinction between primary and secondary properties is not always clearly distinguishable

Question 8

What are the problems with idealism?

Answer 8

• physical objects are arguably not based on perception alone
• we are inclined to think that what exists physically is made up of matter that exists independently from our minds
• also makes it difficult to distinguish between true and false beliefs