Reid’s Direct Realism and Visible Figure

Philosophical Quarterly 63 (253):783-803 (2013)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In his account of visual perception, Thomas Reid describes visible figure as both ‘real and external’ to the eye and as the ‘immediate object of sight’. These claims appear to conflict with Reid's direct realism, since if the ‘immediate’ object of vision is also its direct object, then sight would be perceptually indirect due to the role of visible figure as a perceptual intermediary. I argue that this apparent threat to Reid's direct realism may be resolved by understanding visible figure as the set of geometrical properties that holds between an object's visible surfaces and some particular perspective or point of view. On this relational interpretation of visible figure, and once an ambiguity over the use of the term ‘object’ is resolved, Reid's account of vision is both epistemically and perceptually direct, as well as consistent with his account of the other senses and doctrine of signs.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 101,795

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Reid and Wells on Single and Double Vision.Giovanni B. Grandi - 2010 - Journal of Scottish Thought 3:143-163.
Was Reid a Direct Realist?Jake Quilty-Dunn - 2013 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 21 (2):302 - 323.
Reid's Direct Realism about Vision.Giovanni B. Grandi - 2006 - History of Philosophy Quarterly 23 (3):225 - 241.
What Sort of Epistemological Realist was Thomas Reid?Nicholas Wolterstorff - 2006 - Journal of Scottish Philosophy 4 (2):111-124.
Thomas Reid's Direct Realism.Jackson Todd Buras - 2004 - Dissertation, Yale University
Three Grades of Immediate Perception: Thomas Reid’s Distinctions.Todd Buras - 2008 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 76 (3):603–632.
The problem with Reid's direct realism.Todd Buras - 2002 - Philosophical Quarterly 52 (209):457-477.
The extension of color sensations: Reid, Stewart, and Fearn.Giovanni B. Grandi - 2011 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 41 (S1):50-79.
Reconsidering Reid's geometry of visibles.Gideon Yaffe - 2002 - Philosophical Quarterly 52 (209):602-620.

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-09-14

Downloads
383 (#75,381)

6 months
8 (#610,780)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Keith A. Wilson
University College Dublin

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references