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Michael

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If someone claims that the direct object of perceptual knowledge is the already-processed phenomenological content, and that through this we have indi...
April 14, 2024 at 09:55
These are the three positions: 1. Naive realism: a) naive realism is true and b) I experience distal objects 2. Indirect realism: a) naive realism is ...
April 14, 2024 at 09:23
That's not the sense that is meant by the naive realist and rejected by the indirect realist. The sense that is meant by the naive realist and rejecte...
April 14, 2024 at 09:10
No. Naive realists believe that distal objects are constituents of experience and so that experience provides us with direct knowledge of distal objec...
April 14, 2024 at 07:53
Which is an irrelevant argument about grammar. From my previous post:
April 14, 2024 at 07:48
Correct. The photograph is in my drawer. Big Ben is not in my drawer. The only things that constitute the photo are its physical materials. What does ...
April 14, 2024 at 07:47
Both indirect and non-naive direct realists believe that colours are a mental representation of some distal object's surface properties. Both indirect...
April 14, 2024 at 07:34
The representational theory of perception that claims that perceptual content is some mental phenomenon (e.g. sense data or qualia) that represents th...
April 14, 2024 at 05:46
I don't say that it's false. I have been at pains in this discussion (and others over the past few years) to explain that trying to address the episte...
April 13, 2024 at 18:23
What does "our perceptions are of distal objects" mean? Given that indirect realists believe that "our perceptions are of distal objects" is false but...
April 13, 2024 at 16:49
I might agree; realism, idealism, atheism, pantheism, and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics are all unfalsifiable and cannot be prov...
April 13, 2024 at 16:31
His experience is the evidence. He has direct knowledge of his experiences. What best explains the existence of such experiences and their regularity ...
April 13, 2024 at 16:23
In a sense, hence why indirect realists claim that there is an epistemological problem of perception, entailing the viability of scepticism. But the t...
April 13, 2024 at 16:07
It's considered the most parsimonious explanation for the existence and regularity and predictability of experience. Although subjective idealists dis...
April 13, 2024 at 15:42
Experience is the evidence. From it we infer the cause. Much like from the screen readings of a Geiger counter we infer the nearby existence of radiat...
April 13, 2024 at 15:32
Inference. How do we know that a Geiger counter measures ionizing radiation? How do we know that the Higgs boson exists? How do we know that Hitler is...
April 13, 2024 at 15:05
You said that indirect realism and non-naive direct realism are different positions because non-naive direct realism believes that "my experience is o...
April 13, 2024 at 14:39
I'm not saying that it's not what you see. I'm saying that distal objects are not constituents of experience. The grammar of "I see X" has nothing do ...
April 13, 2024 at 14:29
Distal objects are physical objects. What would it mean for a physical object be a mental constituent?
April 13, 2024 at 14:23
Why not? The Sun is physically separate from the grass, but (light from) the Sun has physically interacted with the grass to cause it to grow. It seem...
April 13, 2024 at 14:22
Yes, distal objects are not physical constituents of experience, which is why knowledge of experience is not direct knowledge of distal objects, hence...
April 13, 2024 at 14:20
I'm saying that distal objects are not constituents of experience, much like Hitler is not a constituent of some book about him. Each are separate ent...
April 13, 2024 at 14:18
The indirect realist agrees that some distal object has interacted with one's sense to cause the experience.
April 13, 2024 at 14:15
Yes.
April 13, 2024 at 13:58
Experience does not extend beyond the body. Distal objects exist outside the body. What does it mean to say that some experience is of some distal obj...
April 13, 2024 at 13:49
Yes. Experience does not extend beyond the body. Distal objects exist outside the body. Therefore, distal objects are not constituents of experience. ...
April 13, 2024 at 13:46
The dispute between direct(/naive) and indirect(/non-naive) realism concerns the epistemological problem of perception; does experience provide us wit...
April 13, 2024 at 12:57
The answer to all of your questions depend on the meaning of the word “direct” which you have already admitted mean different things to the indirect r...
April 13, 2024 at 11:36
Yes. When the visual and auditory cortexes etc. activate without being triggered by some appropriate external stimulus then we are dreaming or halluci...
April 13, 2024 at 09:46
Unless we're dealing with technical terms like those in maths and science, the notion that there is some singular "correct" meaning of a word or phras...
April 12, 2024 at 16:50
I can see things when I close my eyes, especially after eating magic mushrooms. The schizophrenic hears voices when suffering from psychosis. We all s...
April 12, 2024 at 16:09
What does it mean for some A to view some B? Sometimes you seem to be suggesting that A views B iff A has eyes that respond to light reflecting off B....
April 12, 2024 at 15:14
Thanks, I'll check it out. I do also want to further reply to this: I believe it's Paul Churchland who argues for eliminative materialism and that pai...
April 12, 2024 at 10:11
Roundness as seen or roundness as felt? Because these are two different things. In fact, there have been studies of people born blind who are later gi...
April 12, 2024 at 09:39
I don't think that this is a weakness. I think that this is a fact entailed by scientific realism and the Standard Model. I think that the hard proble...
April 12, 2024 at 09:15
So what you're saying is that what indirect realists mean by "direct" isn't what non-naive direct realists mean by "direct", and so that it is possibl...
April 12, 2024 at 08:12
That's just reading too much into the grammar. If one person claims that we read words on a page, that the painting is paint, and that we feel a sensa...
April 12, 2024 at 08:05
I have yet to hear a meaningful description of non-naive direct realism. Every account so far seems to just be indirect realism but refusing to call i...
April 11, 2024 at 14:47
Light reflects from the screen, stimulating the sense receptors in the eyes, sending signals to the brain, eliciting a visual sensation. Presumably we...
April 11, 2024 at 14:07
Sensations.
April 11, 2024 at 13:59
All this seems to be saying is that our body is continually responding to new stimulation, reshaping the neural connections in the brain and moving ac...
April 11, 2024 at 10:26
I agree. But it is still the case that all this is happening in our heads. Everything about experience is reducible to the mental/neurological. The co...
April 11, 2024 at 08:50
Because experience does not extend beyond the body – it’s the body’s physiological response to stimulation (usually; dreams are an exception) – wherea...
April 11, 2024 at 08:23
The visual phenomenon grows (as shown by comparing it to the ruler held at arm's length from my face). If you infer from this that some distal object ...
April 10, 2024 at 11:10
And to repeat something I said earlier: indirect realism does not entail unsuccessful interaction with the world, and so successful interaction with t...
April 10, 2024 at 09:55
I think that if they admit that colours are not properties of objects then they must admit that colours are the exact mental intermediary (e.g. sense-...
April 10, 2024 at 08:16
It doesn't appear as if it's stuck to the ceiling. It appears as if the floor is up and the ceiling is down, which they are. As you seem to think that...
April 10, 2024 at 08:00
They agree that the eyes move about their sockets and in response to stimulation by electromagnetic radiation send signals to the brain, which in turn...
April 09, 2024 at 18:16
Then I don't know what you mean by "direct". If both "direct" and indirect realists agree that distal objects and their properties are not actual cons...
April 09, 2024 at 17:54
That's the point. Indirect realists believe that there is an epistemological problem precisely because the only information given directly to rational...
April 09, 2024 at 16:49