[lit-ideas] Re: The Causal Theory of Perception
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2014 18:51:47 -0500 (EST)
In a message dated 2/4/2014 3:53:44 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
few in any football ground would dispute that, when they see the pitch,
this is an 'internal' experience of an 'external' "object": that if they shut
their eyes, in their 'internal' experience the pitch disappears from view
but the pitch as 'external' "object" does not disappear from the 'external
world'; that the pitch as external "object" is a cause of its perception...
The qualification, 'in any football ground' seems relevant; for surely the
critics to the causal theory of perception have not been football players
but philosophers*.
On the other hand, there's
http://www.iep.utm.edu/sense-da/
I read:
"If sense-data form a homogenous class of entities, and it is held that
they can never be identified with the ordinary physical objects outside the
subject’s body, then the question arises as to how in fact sense-data are
related to the physical objects that we assume make up the external world."
"According to the Causal Theory of Perception (sometimes called the “
Representative Theory,” or “Indirect Realism”) sense-data are caused by the
physical objects that in some sense we perceive, perhaps indirectly, in our
local surroundings."
"When I see an apple [or a tomato, to use Price's example], that apple
causes me to be immediately aware of a sense-datum of a red and green round
shape, a sense-datum that roughly “corresponds” to the facing surface of the
real physical apple."
"Some writers have objected to the Causal Theory on epistemic grounds. It
has sometimes been claimed that physical objects are made unknowable on the
causal account, or that demonstrative reference to physical objects would
not be possible if the theory was correct (for discussion see Price, 1932;
Armstrong, 1961; and Bermudez, 2000; but for replies to this criticism
compare Grice, 1961, and Jackson, 1977)."
Or not, of course.
Cheers,
Speranza
*but cfr. Grice's obituary, "Professional philosopher and amateur
cricketer".
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