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Michael

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The positive reason is that after disintegration there is still the appearance of an apple even though there is no apple, and so either a) the appeara...
February 08, 2026 at 11:38
What does this even mean? Are you saying that these properties are properties that inhere in distal objects, but only when you exist and look at them ...
February 07, 2026 at 21:26
The fleshed out argument is here.
February 07, 2026 at 21:14
Which reaffirms what I have been saying since page 1. Indirect realism is concerned with phenomenology, and which things in the world we have direct p...
February 07, 2026 at 21:11
Is there a difference between these two claims? 1. At t1 the intentional object of perception is the apple-at-t0 2. At t1 I have direct perception of ...
February 07, 2026 at 20:59
As an aside, this is why I think my example with the apple is actually a stronger argument than the argument from hallucination. Direct realists often...
February 07, 2026 at 20:44
Do you not recognise your hypocrisy? If it's not odd or telling that you say "I see an apple" instead of "I see light" then it's not odd or telling th...
February 07, 2026 at 20:26
The possibility of (2) only depends on the possibility of a brain living in a vat and the possibility of a cortical visual prosthesis being able to st...
February 07, 2026 at 18:43
No it doesn't. Which is also true for the indirect realist. Then I'll respond a different way: you should use language consistent with your theory; fo...
February 07, 2026 at 18:21
You're implying that direct realism avoids scepticism, but that simply begs the question. It's entirely possible that both of these are true: 1. If we...
February 07, 2026 at 17:51
Thought experiments are a legitimate philosophical tool. They can show that a prima facie reasonable theory doesn’t actually work. For example, you sa...
February 07, 2026 at 16:16
Sorry, I'm not entirely sure what you're saying here. Is there a question? I'll present the argument in full, starting with the naive view of percepti...
February 07, 2026 at 14:53
Which part do you reject? Colours and shapes as qualia or that I continue to believe that there is an intact red apple 10m in front of me because I co...
February 07, 2026 at 13:55
I don't understand what this means, or how it relates to what I am saying or to indirect realism. I am saying that during the second interval I see sh...
February 07, 2026 at 11:02
There's the negative thesis that distal objects and their properties are not the constituents of first-person phenomenal experience and there's the po...
February 06, 2026 at 18:28
An example of first-person phenomenal experience? It's what occurs when the visual cortex is active, whether dreaming, hallucinating, or having ordina...
February 06, 2026 at 16:44
By light being causally responsible for but not a constituent of the first-person phenomenal experience that emerges from neural activity in the visua...
February 06, 2026 at 16:38
Of course it matters. If we don't have direct visual perception of apples then our ordinary understanding of perception is wrong, and there is an epis...
February 06, 2026 at 16:32
Yes, because it's important. This is the proposition under consideration: 1. We have direct visual perception of apples According to most direct reali...
February 06, 2026 at 16:20
This isn't my claim. This is the consequence of your claim. I am simply pushing you to acknowledge this. According to your theory of perception we do ...
February 06, 2026 at 16:12
Yes, but I'm specifically talking about visual perception. But if you want me to be explicit, then according to your theory of perception, our percept...
February 06, 2026 at 16:05
But our eyes don't, which is why you must accept that we do not have direct visual perception of apples; that either we only have indirect visual perc...
February 06, 2026 at 16:00
I'm not saying that the causal story is sufficient to cash out intentionality and epistemic normativity. I'm saying that distal objects and their prop...
February 06, 2026 at 13:25
I think the crux of the disagreement is that I don't think there is a disagreement, as I have been trying to explain since page 1. We both agree with ...
February 05, 2026 at 20:55
By them causally affecting our bodies, or causally affecting energies that causally affect our bodies, and then our bodies causally affecting our mind...
February 05, 2026 at 20:23
The same thing that enables the people with bionic eyes to do this? Unless you can point out exactly what the problem is I don't know how I can answer...
February 05, 2026 at 20:12
Indirect realism doesn't say that it doesn't? You're reading something into indirect realism that I just don't understand. The people wearing the viso...
February 05, 2026 at 19:53
Well, yes, that's how all arguments work? So now you reject P3? Here you said "I would then point out that the relationship of the apple to the light ...
February 05, 2026 at 19:47
That's not what's claimed? The claim is that the world might be very different to how it appears — and I think science has proven that it is. Science ...
February 05, 2026 at 19:09
C2 doesn't follow.
February 05, 2026 at 19:03
Who says it's not? It's entirely possible that all these are true: 1. Distal objects and their properties are not constituents of first-person phenome...
February 05, 2026 at 18:43
It's very relevant, and drives the epistemological problem of perception. The worry is that if distal objects and their properties are not constituent...
February 05, 2026 at 18:09
Yes. Given that I have perception of the apple during the first 10 seconds but don't have direct perception of the apple during the first 10 seconds i...
February 05, 2026 at 17:45
You're committing an association fallacy. As apparently I need to be even more explicit: P1. We have direct perception of X iff our sense organs are i...
February 05, 2026 at 17:36
Your argument rested on the premise that we have direct perception of X if and only if our sense organs are in direct physical contact with X, but if ...
February 04, 2026 at 18:34
No, the claim is that we do not directly see the tennis. We still indirectly see the tennis, much like when watching it on TV. And it's not ridiculous...
February 04, 2026 at 18:05
Except you have been arguing that the following proposition is true: 1. I have direct perception of X if and only if my sense organs are in direct phy...
February 04, 2026 at 17:57
I don't leave it open? C3 literally says "I do not have direct perception of the apple during the first 10 seconds". No, because as per C3 I do not ha...
February 04, 2026 at 17:51
It's indirect visual perception of apples and trees and everything other than light, which is a very significant asterisk to your "direct visual perce...
February 03, 2026 at 20:54
That's not what I said. I'll start again from the top. The important points to take from this are: P1. If I have direct perception of an object then t...
February 03, 2026 at 20:15
And the way scientists say we see things is the way indirect realists say we see things, in contrast to naive realists who say that distal objects and...
February 03, 2026 at 19:44
I'll rephrase the two claims: 1. The constituents of first-person phenomenal experience are distal objects and their properties 2. The constituents of...
February 03, 2026 at 19:24
Yes, and this is indirect perception of the object reflecting the light even according to your account of direct perception. I'm not saying it does. A...
February 03, 2026 at 19:15
That comment of mine was directed at NOS4A2, not you. He does say that we only have direct visual perception of light. The apple doesn't exist during ...
February 03, 2026 at 19:08
No, indirect realism says that we do not have direct perception of the tennis when watching it on the screen; that we only have indirect perception of...
February 03, 2026 at 19:02
I don't know, and it's not how I've defined it. This is the scientific account of perception: This is clearly what indirect realism argues, as contras...
February 02, 2026 at 18:27
Yes, as I have tried to explain several times, e.g. with the distinction between phenomenological direct realism and semantic direct realism. It is po...
February 02, 2026 at 18:07
No, I'm saying that: P1. If the apple is not a constituent of the experience during the second 10 seconds then it is not a constituent of the experien...
February 02, 2026 at 17:54
The relevant issue is that when I see the tennis match on television I do not have direct perception of the tennis match. In the context of the disput...
February 02, 2026 at 17:48
I don't understand what you're trying to say. Most direct realists say that we have direct visual perception of apples and trees and everything else t...
February 02, 2026 at 17:38