Card 2.2.1 · Root II — Epistemology
Perception
When you see a tree, what are you actually seeing?
This node asks what we are directly aware of when we perceive — the world itself, or something the mind produces in response to it.
Where it sits
Under 2.2 Sources of knowledge. Borders 1.3 Philosophy of mind, 2.4 Skepticism.
The rival answers
| Position | What you are directly aware of |
|---|---|
| Direct realism | The object itself, unmediated |
| Indirect realism | A mental representation caused by the object |
| Sense-datum theory | A mental item with the properties you experience |
| Adverbialism | No inner object; you are simply sensing in a certain manner |
| Disjunctivism | Veridical perception and hallucination share no common fundamental kind |
| Phenomenalism | Objects are constructions out of actual and possible experiences |
Key figures
| Figure | Dates | Tradition | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dignāga | c. 480–540 | Indian Buddhist | Perception is free of conceptual construction |
| Ibn al-Haytham | c. 965–1040 | Islamic | Perception as inference from sensation; optics and judgement combined |
| George Berkeley | 1685–1753 | European modern | For sensible things, to be is to be perceived |
| Thomas Reid | 1710–1796 | European modern | Direct realism defended against the way of ideas |
| J. L. Austin | 1911–1960 | Analytic | Attacked the argument from illusion |
| Maurice Merleau-Ponty | 1908–1961 | Continental | Perception is embodied: the lived body, not a detached mind, is the perceiver |
Connections
→ 2.2 · ↔ 1.3, 2.4, 1.1, 5.5 · ◇ direct realism, indirect realism, sense-datum theory, adverbialism, disjunctivism, phenomenalism · ○ Classical; Islamic golden age; Early modern; Table 3
→ narrower questions · ↔ questions it borders · ◇ the positions, mapped in Part III of the book · ○ the eras and comparison tables (Parts IV and V)
The full card is in the book
In The Coordinates of Thought this card goes on to a worked example that sets the answers against one case, and to where the question touches daily life — page 93.
On Coordinates of Thought
Conversations about this question in Perception:
- Is my red your red? Where does the inverted spectrum come from? 5 replies
- Reading group: Berkeley’s Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, one dialogue at a time 5 replies
- Reading group: Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, Part One on the body 5 replies
- Austin answered the argument from illusion, but the argument from hallucination survives him 5 replies
- Seeing before naming: are Dignāga and Merleau-Ponty saying the same thing about perception? 5 replies