Direct realism

• what is direct realism?

  We are immediately aware of a mind-independent world and we directly perceive its qualities without intermediary. This means there exists an external world outside of our minds which continues to exist even if it is not being perceived.
• Why does perceptual variation pose as a threat for direct realism?

  Perceptual variation poses a threat to direct realism because it suggests that individuals can perceive the same object differently, which means we do not perceive.
• What does Berkeley say about perceptual variation?


  Used the example of clouds which appear red from a distance and any number of colours from different perspectives. According to Berkeley there is no real colour in the clouds and it is an effect made upon us by physical things rather than something in the object itself. Therefore we are directly aware of something that does not exist in the real world so how could we perceive something that is not real.
• Why is illusion an issue for direct realism?


  An illusion occurs when something appears in a way that is contrary to how it is in reality. [ex- a pencil appears wonky in water but in reality the water makes no real change to the pencils shape.]Therefore, our senses are subject to illusions which means we are not actually directly aware of real mind-independent qualities and since what we see can sometimes be contrary to reality there seems to be a gap between our senses and reality.
• Why are hallucinations an issue for direct realism?

  A hallucination occurs when we see something that does not actually exist in the real world and is completely subject to the mind. Ex- Macbeth and the dagger. The fact that we can perceive things that do not actually exist raises questions about if we really perceive things directly. This shows that there is a discrepancy between our perception and the external world, we do not directly perceive the external world. Leads to scepticism as to whether there exists an external world.
• What is a hallucination?

  A non-veridical perceptual experience that is not coherently connected with the rest of our perceptual experience.
• What is an illusion?

  A distorted sense experience that means we perceive things differently to how they really are.
• Why is time lag an issue for direct realism?

   The light from distant objects (such as the sun) takes time to reach our eyes.

  So what we are seeing now may no longer exist.

  so what we are seeing and what is there are different

  This is no less true for physical objects at any distance. And so, what we directly see are appearances not the physical objects, and direct realism is false.