Direct Realism

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  • Direct realism
    • The external world exists independently of the mind
      • We perceive the external world directly
        • If we see a tree then there is a tree
      • Immediate objects of perception are mind independent objects
    • Argument from illusion
      • We perceive the external world directly as it is
        • But with illusion there is an obvious difference between our perception and reality
          • When a pencil is placed in a glass it is crooked but it isn't actually crooked
            • If DR was true then the external world would be exactly as we perceive
              • But the pencil just has the property of looking crooked even though its not crooked
                • DR is concerned with immediate objects tho which includes the pencil looking crooked
    • Argument from hallucination
      • When we hallucinate we perceive things that are not there
        • But they're not as vivid as physical objects
          • Sometimes they are extremely vivid therefore this cannot counter this point
            • What causes these perceptions cannot come from the external world directly
              • How do we know the hallucinations don't exist?
                • Because others do not perceive it
                  • We cannot trust our feeling
    • Argument from perceptual variation
      • Bertland Russell
        • Differences in perceptual variation causes issues for direct realism
          • Famous dress conflict
            • Blue or black
              • According to DR there should be no difference between perception and reality
                • Gold and white
                • We are all perceiving the same blue and black dress but from specific angles and lights it looks white and gold
                  • But there is perceptual variation nevertheless therefore DR is weak
            • Gold and white
    • Time lag argument
      • The sun is 149,600,000km from the earth
        • Light traveks at 299,792,458 per second
          • It takes approximately 8 minutes for light to reach the earth
            • When we look at the sun we're actually perceiving it from how it was 8 minutes ago
              • not directly
                • If it exploded we wouldn't know, we would be perceiving something that is not there
                  • This is similar to the hallucination problem but everyone would be perceiving the same thing
                    • All of us would see the sun even though it was not there
                      • DR respond that this does not under mind the theory are you are not perceiving the light from the sun directly
                        • This still shows DR has many flaws and is not be the correct basis
                          • A better theory would be one that bases their theory on perceiving the external world indirectly and via our senses

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