Direct Realism

Direct Realism

-> The immediate objects of perception are mind-independent

- Perceive objects directly

- What you perceive is exactly what the object is.

Argument from illusion

- An illusion is a distortion of the senses

-> What you are perceiving is incorrect

Stick in water

A straight stick appears bent in water

You perceive the stick to be bent while it is actually straight

-> Therefore, what you are directly perceiving is false.

---> A direct realist would perceive and believe the stick is bent while it isnt, therefore you are perceiving the stick indirectly but sense data directly.

Perceptual Variation

- There are variations in our perception of physical objects, but the object itself remains the same.

Russels table example

The table appears different when looked at from different angles;

- Colour/shading

- Size

but the table itself remains the same.

Showing:

Therefore, what we are immediately aware of in perception is sense data

- We do not perceive physical objects directly.

Hallucinations

Our perception is suspectible to hallucinations --> Experience of perception of something not present.

A direct realist would believe the perception in a hallucination to be real

- And it would be impossible to distinguish hallucinations from the real thing.

But as hallucinations are perceptions of something not present;

We perceive sense data directly, not physical objects.

Time-Lag Argument

It takes time for light/sound to travel to the senses. -- (we can perceive something even after it exists

The Sun example

If the sun suddenly went out of existence, we would still see it for some time.

What we are seeing cannot be the sun (As it doesnt exist anymore)

Would be seeing sense data

Therefore, we don't perceive physical objects directly