Flashcards
Perception as a source of knowledge
Cards in this deck (51)
- 1If you are a realist, what do you believeIt exists independently of our minds
- 2What is direct realismThe idea that we perceive things immediately- without anything getting between us and the objects we perceive
- 3What did David Hume say about direct realismOnce one had engaged in the slightest philosophy one would be forced to give it up
- 4Berkeley and perceptual variationThree dialogues between Hylas and Philonous - it makes no sense to suppose clouds have any real colour
- 5Bertrand Russell the problems of philosophyColour cannot be something which is really in the table itself.
- 6Locke perceptual variationA hot hand and cold hand in a bucket of water would feel different things
- 7What is sense dataWhat one is directly aware of in perception
- 8Responses to perceptual variationWe are rarely fooled by the perspective we take into mistaking the real colours or shapes of objects. Just because we do not perceive the world precisely as it is, there isn’t no saying we do not perceive it directly .the table appears differently from how it really is because of the way it relates to the observer
- 9What conclusion is drawn from illusionsWhat we immediately perceive cannot be what is in the world, since what we are perceiving is not the same as what is really there’s
- 10What would a direct realist say in response to illusionsIt is perfectly possible to perceive a straight straw as bent without implying that we directly perceive a bent straw and only indirectly a straight one. The bent appearance of the straw is not sense datum, rather it is a property of the straw that emerges in relation to the viewer
- 11What does hallucinations concludeWhat I am immediately aware of, even when not hallucinating, must be a dagger of the mind, or sense datum
- 12Responses to the hallucination argumentsWe can identify when we are hallucinating, using other senses if we couldn’t we would never be aware we are subjects to them
Hallucinations aren’t perceptions , even if they are indistinguishable they are different in nature - 13Russel and the time lag issue“ when we see the sun we are seeing the sun eight minutes ago”
“ if the physical sun had ceased to exists ewithinnth elast eight minutes, that would make no difference to the sense datum which we call ‘ seeing the sun’ “ - 14What is the time lag argumentThere is a time lag between us and the physical objects around us. The light from the table in front of me takes some time to arrive, and so it appears to follow we are not directly perceiving the objects around us
- 15Responses to the time lag issueWe are directly aware of it as it was.
- 16Blind spot argumentIf you were to walk around with one eye open you would experience a blind spot however there is not a constant gap in your visual field and this is because your brain fills in the gap for you. If we accept that the brain is processing information before you perceive it, there must be the world as it is and the world as how it appears
- 17what does an indirect realist believethe immediate objects of perception are sense data or representations and that the physical world is perceived only indirectly via these representations
- 18what are primary qualitiesthose that exist independently of our perceiving them
- 19what does locke define secondary qualities as" qualities that are, in the objects themselves, really nothing but powers to produce various sensations in us by their primary qualitites
- 20what does locke say about the relationship between the qualitites of an object which cause us for example to see bluethe relationship is an arbitrary one meaning there is no resemblance between the sensation of blue and whatever it is in the flower that causes it. think words and the ides that they create in our mind
- 21what is leibniz's view on lockes primary secondary distinctionthere must be a resemblance between our sensations and what cauases them, even though we may not be able to recognise it since our sensations of secondary qualities are complex, not simple.
- 224 other considerations on primary and secondary qualities1 - mathematical or geometric description
2 developments in natural science
3. essential and inessential properties
4. sense accessibility - 23what is meant by the mathematical description argumentprimary qualities are measurable however subjectively experienced qualities can not be measured
- 24what developments in science support a primary secondary distinctionphysics tells us that light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, and that what we perceive as different colours are, in reality, simply light waves of different lengths reflecting off the surfaces of objects.
- 25what is meant by inessential and essential propertiesessential properties are those an object cannot be without and remain an object, so these must be primary.secondary qualities,by contrast, since they only appear in conjunction with perceivers, are inessential
- 26locke grain of wheatan example of essential and inessential properties can be seen when dividing wheat. primary qualities remain no matter how small you cut the wheat
- 27what is sense accessability in primary and secondary qualitiesprimary qualities can be accessed by more than one sense, feeling and seeing the shape of a dice. but secondary qualities are only accessible to one sense. you cannot hear the smell of toast
- 28russels indirect realismwhat we are immediatly aware of within the mind is called 'private space'. the sense data from this private space maps out on the world or real physical space
there is also private time which is our feeling of duration - 29what are the strengths of the indirect realist theoryit deals with problems faced by direct realism
- 30what are two issues raised about indirect realism1 : skepticism about the nature of mind indepeneant objects
2 : scepticism about the existence of mind independent objects - 31what is scepticism about the nature of mind independant objectshow can we determine how well our perception of the world (world two)resembles the world as it is. we have seen how indirect realists claim that our secondary qualities do not resemble what causes them, whats to prevent us doubting the primary qualities resemblance
- 32what is the veil of perceptionthe gap between the world as it appears and the world as it really is, which skeptics claim is impossible to cross. we can only have access to our representation
- 33lines of defence against the nature of mind independant object argumentif the world we percieve did not match, we would not survive, we woudlnt be able to catch animals .
we could appeal to the testimony of other peopel - 34sceptics responses to lines of defense against the nature of mind independandt argumentthe survival argument doesnt tell how accurate out perception is
-if the human perceptual system distorts reality, it will ditsort it the same way for all humans - 35what is scepticism about the existence of mind independant objectsrene descartes evil demon- our sense data could be causes by something entirely different from what we ordinarily suppose they are. if this were the case, there is nothing in our sense experience that would reveal it, so we cannot be certain that there really is a physical world out there
- 36russell and the existence of mind independent objectswe cannot strictly prove this idea false, he suggests appealing to other peoples testimony but this wont do as is presupposes that other people actually exist
- 37lockes responces to skepticismwe cannot attain complete certainty when it comes to the knowledge of the outside world. BUt he doesnt think knowledge of an external world is impossible and brings our attention to two features or our sense experience
- 38what are the two features of our sense experience that provide assurance of a reality of a world beyond the mindthe involuntary nature of our experiences
the coherence of various senses - 39what is the involuntary nature of our experiencessense experiences can not be controlled in the way that remembered experiences can
- 40descartes ivoluntary nature of sense experiences nsensations ' force themselves upon me ' the fact that i cannot control what sensations i have suggests that they ' must be produced in my mind by some exterior cause'
- 41( skeptics ) dreams and involuntary sense experienceswhen we dream, we often have sense experiences we have no control over. but if we can sometimes have such experiences, then the claim that such experiences cannot come from within me is plainly false. it might be that sense data are produced in me by the cartesian devil
- 42locke - dreaming and involuntary sense experiencesdreaming of being in a fire is very different from being in a fire, so the fact that waking life is more vivid might be taken as evidence of its being causes by an external reality
- 43locke and the choerence of sensesour senses often confirm each other's reports concerning the existence of perceptible things outside us
- 44an example of coherence of senseswe can both feel and see the faces and edges of a cube, and this agreement between the senses suggests there exists some object with those qualities idnependently stimulating both senses
- 45berkeley and the molenyuex problemif both moleyneux and locke are right, that we have to learn the connection between visible ideas and tangible ones, then Locke's claim that they both reveal the same ideas of shape and so on must be wrong.
- 46cockburns argument for the coherence of the senseeif we had just one sense we would never be able to escape solopism
colours are completely unlike sounds
the ways in which the different sense experiences from different senses correlate is remarkabl consistent and regular - 47critism for locke and cockburnyou can dream of biting into an apple but
the cartesian demon could also be producing an experience where the senses cohere - 48russel: external world as the best hypothesisa complete proof of an external world is beyond us but we can justify belief in the external world
- 49how can russel justify belief of an external world" there seems no good reason for rejecting it. we therefore admit - through with a slight doubt derived from dreams - that the external world does really exist, and is not wholly dependent for its existence upon our continuing to perceive it"
- 50russel and his catif the cat exists whether i see it or not, we can understand from our own experience how it gets hungry between one meal and the next" if it ceased to exist, why the cat becomes hungry becomes a mystery. this is the best hypothesis the the available evidence
- 51what did kant say about the real worldwe can not know anything about the noumenal world. we process data we perceive. all we have access to is the post-processed world.Kant suggests that we should call the perceived world the real world, as this is the world we inhabit and is the only world of which we can speak meaningfully
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- AS level Philosophy Flashcards on Perception as a source of knowledge , created by Madelaine Baines on 13/02/2021.
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