James Ladyman by Understanding Philosophy of Science-Routledge (2002)

Author:Understanding Philosophy of Science-Routledge (2002)
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

In Chapter 4, I discussed the idea of theory-laden observation. Recent empirical work seems to suggest that what we see is, at least in part, constructed by our brains, rather than being simply an image transmitted from the retina. So, for example, it has been found that if someone is given a pair of spectacles with lenses that turn everything upside down, then at first they will be quite unable to see properly.

However, after a while, their brain will adapt and they will start seeing everything the right way up again. Then if the spectacles are later removed, the world will look upside down again until the brain readjusts.

The doctrine that the immediate or direct objects of perception are ideas in the mind, rather than objects in the external world was called ideaism by Alan Musgrave (1993) (not to be confused with idealism, of which more later).

Ideaism: We do not directly perceive external objects but rather our minds’ own ideas or representations of the world.

This was the theory held by the British empiricists, Locke, Berkeley and Hume, who have done so much to influence philosophy of science. According to these thinkers, the mind is not directly aware of objects in the world at all, but rather of what they called ‘ideas’ and

‘impressions’: Locke says the mind ‘hath no other immediate object but its own ideas’ (Locke 1964: Book IV, i, I); Berkeley says ‘the objects of human knowledge are either ideas actually imprinted on the senses, or else such as are perceived by attending to the passions and operations of the mind’ (Berkeley 1975: Part I, I); and Hume says

‘[a]ll the perceptions of the human mind resolve themselves into impressions and ideas’ (Hume 1978: I,i,I). A twentieth century version of ideaism was maintained by Alfred Ayer (1910–1989) who said, ‘one can directly experience only what is private to oneself’ (Ayer 1940: 136). (These supposed immediate objects of experience are what many twentieth century philosophers used to call ‘sense-data’; they are also sometimes called ‘the given’.)

All of the British empiricists thought that there were basically two types of mental objects or ideas, namely those that are produced by the senses and the emotions, and those that are copies or faint images of the former. It is best to take Hume’s terminology because he distinguishes between ‘impressions’ and ‘ideas’, to make this distinction clear; hence, the impression of red is what is forced on the mind by the senses, whereas the idea of red is the image of that impression that one can bring before the mind at will. Similarly, the impression of anger is the feeling that one has when one is angry, whereas the idea of anger is the faint copy of that impression which is before the mind when one thinks about anger.

Ideaism contradicts direct realism, but not the part of the latter that says that there are external objects. Ideaism is a thesis about the nature of perception, not a metaphysical thesis about what exists.

Hence, ideaism is compatible with metaphysical realism.

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