Originally Posted by
StarsOfCCTV
Lol its ok :p
Brief summary of each :D
Realism
Can't find my notes on it :lol:
Common-sense realism
View held by most people that haven't studied Philosophy. It assumes that there is a world of physical objects - trees, cars, goldfish etc - which we can learn about through our 5 senses. These physical objects continue to exist whether or not we are perceiving them. What is more, these objects are more or less as they appear to us, goldfish really are orange etc. This is because our organs of sense perception - eyes, ears, tongue, skin and nose - are generally reliable. They give us a realist perception of what is out there.
Problems
- Scepticism about certainty of the senses - dreaming argument, hallucination argument, argument from illusion (misperception, error), brain in vat.
Idealism
There is no justification for saying that the external world exists at all. Physical objects - a skyscraper, my desk, other people only exist while they are being perceived. We are all locked in individual cinemas watching films, but there is no real world outside the cinemas. We cannot leave because there is nothing outside. The films are our only reality. When no one is watching the screen, the projector light is switched off but the film keeps on running through the projector. Whenever I look at the screen, the light comes on again and the film is at precisely the same place it would have been had it been projected all along.
Problems: hallucinations and dreams. - how can we know what they are if we only have internal ideas. Leads to solipsism - no physical objects means there is no other people. Everything is a creation of my own mind.
Causal Realism
The causes of our sense experience are physical objects in the external world. The main biological function of our sense if to help us find our way around our environment. It is through our senses that we acquire beliefs about our environment. According to causal realism, when I see my guitar what actually happens is that light rays reflected from the guitar cause certain effects on my retina and on other areas of my brain. This leads to me acquiring certain beliefs about what I am seeing. The experience of acquiring the beliefs is the experience of seeing my guitar. The route is important - If I was hallucinating then I wouldn't really be seeing my guitar. The drugs would be the cause of my belief. Seeing is a matter of acquiring information about my surroundings. Assumes that there really is an external world that continues to exist, whether or not we are perceiving it. Also assumes that beliefs from senses are generally true, that is why we developed them in natural selection.
Problems - assumes there is a real world. Doesn't take adequate account of what it is actually like to see something - the qualititave aspect of sight. It reduces the experience of perceiving to a form of information gathering.
Causal realism is the best type because it can easily explain the fact that our existing knowledge affects what we perceive. In acquiring information our system of classification, and our knowledge, directly affect how how we treat incoming information on what we select and interpret as relevant.
