{"id":1605,"date":"2023-02-24T05:10:44","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T05:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2023\/02\/24\/perception-an-inconsistent-triad\/"},"modified":"2023-02-24T05:10:44","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T05:10:44","slug":"perception-an-inconsistent-triad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2023\/02\/24\/perception-an-inconsistent-triad\/","title":{"rendered":"Perception: An Inconsistent Triad"},"content":{"rendered":"

London Ed writes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I am making great progress on the perception book. I have borrowed your idea of an aporia<\/em>, which I use to illustrate the central problem of perception:<\/span><\/p>\n

(1) Transparency<\/u>: This<\/em> is the surface of my desk.<\/span><\/p>\n

(2) Continuity<\/u>: When I shut my eyes, the surface of my desk does not cease to exist<\/span><\/p>\n

(3) Discontinuity<\/u>: When I shut my eyes, this<\/em> ceases to exist<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Here is how I 'see' it.  The problem concerns the nature and status of the referent of the demonstrative pronoun 'this' when uttered by a person as he looks at a physical object such as a desk and says, '<\/span>This<\/em> is the surface of my desk.'  To what, exactly, does 'this' refer? There are two main possibilities.  Roughly, either 'this' refers to something physical that exists in itself or it refers to something non-physical or mental that does not exist in itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

P1. The referent of the pronoun is a proper physical  part of a physical thing that exists whether or not any person is looking at it. (Note that if the thing exists whether or not perceived, then so do its parts.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

P2. The referent of the pronoun is not a physical part of the desk but an item that exists only<\/em> as a correlate of the act of visual awareness of the person who is looking at the desk at a given time.  This correlate is an epistemic intermediary that has (or encodes) all and only the properties of the desk the person has before his mind at the time of his perceiving.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On (P1), the solution to the aporetic triad  is by rejecting (3) while accepting (1) and (2). On (P2), the solution is by rejecting (2) while accepting (1) and (3)<\/span><\/p>\n

I assume that Ed will plump for (P1).  That makes Ed a kind of direct realist. The other type of view can be developed in a realist way as a type of indirect realism or in an idealist way. But no more about that for now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, why not be a direct realist?  Are there any considerations that speak against it?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London Ed writes, I am making great progress on the perception book. I have borrowed your idea of an aporia, which I use to illustrate the central problem of perception: (1) Transparency: This is the surface of my desk. (2) Continuity: When I shut my eyes, the surface of my desk does not cease to exist (3) Discontinuity: When I … Continue reading “Perception: An Inconsistent Triad”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,79,492],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aporetics","category-idealism-and-realism","category-perception"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}