Philosophy Perception

Different objects change in different lighting conditions/ angles.

e.g: water, cloud, table

why should one condition be truer than another?

objects are clearly not constantly changing shape and colour

we cannot be aware of the 'real' object but of changing sense data.

• they appear to change -we're not fooled.
• Just because I'm not aware of the true nature of something doesn't make that thing something else e.g church barn example

Indirect realist - different sense data is being percieved

no physical

never wrong

can be used to infer things about reality

indirect realist

immediate object of perception

(Illusions - mental representations of the physical)

Our senses can be tricked - straw in water

the obvs explanation is that this is when our sense data doesn't match with reality

we cannot be certain about reality or that we are directly percieving

• misinterpretation of perception - illusions are not seperate from reality
• reality is more complex than simple perception. Illusions can be explained by science and tbh make more sense than sense data.

Indirect Realist - misleading sense data

Hallucination - percieving something where there is nothing, mental phenomenon

not experiencing reality

experience is indistinguishable from reality

irrelevant if there is a hallucination or  not

cannnot be certain of what I am immediately percieving therefore it's not real

• Hallucinations aren't even perceptions because they are mental
• No they're not otherwise we wouldn't know about hallucinations
• just because I can't tell if an experience is veridical or a hallucination doesn't make everything a hallucination
• why should perception involve an immediate knowledge of if an experience is veridical or not.

Indirect Realist - sense data without a link

Light takes time to reach our eyes

therefore we're only ever seeing mental pictures of these things from the past.

e.g the sun

• we are directly percieving how they were rather than how they are

Primary - Parts of the object which exist independantly of the mind. OBJECTIVE

size, shape.

Locke - necessary primary quality and object connection

Secondary - mind dependant parts of an object. SUBJECTIVE

 colour, taste, smell, heat

Locke - arbitrary connection e.g flower 'word' does not equal flower 'object'

Leibniz - Nothing is random (principle of sufficient reason)

God doesn't do stuff at random so the SQ and object relationship is not random

SD is very complex- sensations are made up of 'minute perceptions'

There is a connection we just can't directly detect it

Locke + Descartes think SD are simple and fully understood

Primary Qualities:

• Part of objects from the start
• geometrically measurable
• essential
• sensed by several senses

Secondary Qualities:

• SQ boil down to primary - shapes of molecules (Locke)
• Power of an object to create an experience on a mind
• produced by atoms and molecules
• not the above

Private Time - how it feels

Public Time - How is objectively is

Private Space- What we are immediately aware of within the mind consisting of sense data

We only see the world through sense data

we cannot truly see the world because we are enslaved to our perception

how can we be sure PQ give us an accurate view of the world - uncheckable

• no denial of the external world
• testimony of others - we are all fooled in the same way
• If it didn't match then we wouldn't survive

Nothing guarantees the existance of an external world at all

• denies existence of external world
• dream? Stimulation etc
• existance of others - do they exist

there is a veil between us and reality. We are trapped in sense data

God's eye view is percieving reality and sense data

We cannot choose our experiences

something external is causing them.

Dreams and demons

• waking life is more vivid than a dream so it must come from an external source

We experience things with multiple senses

an external object must be causing this

reality exists (reality is the unifying force)

dreams and demons

Locke accepts he can't ultimately prove this

Real world hypothesis just makes sense without adding extra mystery and is a logical explanations of why things are regular and predicatble

Dreams and demons

Solipsism - just my mind that I can be certain of

Ockham's razor works best for idealist - just the mental

How can the physical affect the mental?

Berkeley - sense data = ideas = all we are = no material world

Anti-realist empiricist

Concepts come for experience

according to IDR we cannot percieve matter

there is no such thing as an unpercievable thing 

ESSE EST PERCIPI

We cannot imagine objects without SQ e.g scentless, colourless apple? wtf?

PQ + SQ are inseperable

If SQ is mental so is PQ

• No SQ is in the object and it is an objects power to cause mental impressions (only concievably mental)

Imagine a mind-independant tree

nope, it's inherenty mind dependant

If all experiences are mental then why do illusions and hallucinations, which are perceptual errors, happen?

• Perceptual just don't cos they are physical and there is no physical world
• We can tell veridical experiences from comparison with past ones

Things cease to exist when i stop perceiving them

however things change

how?

• God is the ultimate perciever who always percieves everything

Why do things continue regularly e.g apple will rot

seems miraculous or even ridiculous

• God
• so is the real world

Idealism accepts radical scepticism

Mine is the only mind I can know of

Solipsism

• God

I cannot choose my sense data yet it is regular

No proof of God (should be dismissed because we cannot experience Him) or that He acts how Berkeley says

Also he claims we can concieve of no other mind so how do we concieve of God.

• Lang helps me accepts other minds - God makes regularity which is like a complex language so we should accept Him. + makes sense as creator of SD which is forced on me
• More proof of God if anything, that matter should just act regularly of its own accord is more stupid.

We percieve and experience things

Not only is matter not a thing but it is also unintelligent so it cannot be the cause 

God causes all perception

Space is an abstraction from our ideas of bodies and their relative positions

absolute time is an abstraction from our experience of successive events

Spatio-temporal relations between objects come from my mind and are therefore my own private experience basically

How can we meet at alloted places and times with other people

• God percieves us at the same time
• God makes public time which we all percieve but is not objective because God is immutable and has no succession of thoughts
• doesn't pass when unconcious
  • bit odd cos it means that for a sleeping person it stops. Plus no unconcious state.