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    Sensory ideas are not misrepresentations of qualities in ... — Carmelics
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    Sensory ideas are not misrepresentations of qualities in objects, but are so obscure and confused that we cannot determine their representational content from their phenomenal character alone.

    Philosophy of Language
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Sensory ideas may represent something positive in things, but the reality they represent is so slight it cannot be distinguished from a non-thing.
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    • 2.The phenomenal character of sensations (such as cold or color) does not reveal what those sensations obscurely represent.
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    • 3.Metaphysics and natural philosophy are required to determine what color sensations obscurely represent (e.g., properties of object-surfaces that reflect light in certain ways).
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Phenomenal character is itself constitutive of representational content for sensory states, not merely a symptom of it (Shoemaker, 'The Inverted Spectrum').
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    • 2.If two sensory ideas share identical phenomenal character, they share identical representational content — obscurity cannot divorce the two without collapsing the concept of misrepresentation entirely.
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    • 3.Descartes' own criterion of clear and distinct perception presupposes that phenomenal character is at least a defeasible guide to content, making total opacity self-undermining.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Reid's direct realism holds that sensory qualities are original perceptions of mind-independent properties, not obscure proxies requiring theoretical mediation to interpret.
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    • 2.If metaphysics and natural philosophy are required to fix the representational content of color sensations, then pre-theoretical perceivers lack the concept of color altogether — a conclusion that conflicts with the observable competence of ordinary perceptual agents.
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    Topics

    Philosophy of LanguagePerception

    Key Terms

    Misrepresentations(in discussing how accurately our senses show us the world)
    When something gives you a false or inaccurate picture of reality—like a mirror image that's distorted and doesn't match what's actually there.
    Obscure and confused(describing the nature of sensory experiences)
    Hard to understand or unclear; muddled in a way that makes it difficult to figure out what something really means.
    Qualities in objects(in philosophy of perception)
    The actual properties or characteristics that things have, like their color, texture, or taste in the real world.
    Representational content(as what explains how our beliefs can mean something)
    The ability of thoughts, mental images, or beliefs to be 'about' something in the real world—like how the thought 'it's raining' represents an actual weather condition.
    phenomenal character(Used to distinguish the mere presence of experience from the specific qualitative nature of individual experiences)
    The qualitative, subjective 'what it is like' aspect of mental states; the property of having qualia
    sensory ideas(Descartes, Comments on a Certain Broadsheet)
    Ideas of qualities such as pains, colors, and sounds, arising via the senses; a species of adventitious idea

    Connections

    2 topics

    Truth & Knowledge2 linkedConsciousness & Mind1 linked

    Related

    Descartes' own criterion of clear and distinct perception presupposes that pheno...If metaphysics and natural philosophy are required to fix the representational c...

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
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    But Descartes also offers a different gloss on the obscurity of sensory ideas. He allows that such ideas may be “true” in the sense of representing something positive in things, but that they may do so in such a way that “the reality which they represent is so extremely slight that I cannot even distinguish it from a non-thing” (7:44). Accordingly, sensory ideas are not misrepresentations, they are simply so obscure and confused that we cannot tell what their representational content might be b
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    Details

    If two sensory ideas share identical phenomenal character, they share identical ...
    Metaphysics and natural philosophy are required to determine what color sensatio...
    +4 moreShow less
    Phenomenal character is itself constitutive of representational content for sens...Reid's direct realism holds that sensory qualities are original perceptions of m...Sensory ideas may represent something positive in things, but the reality they r...The phenomenal character of sensations (such as cold or color) does not reveal w...

    Similar

    Sensory ideas may represent something positive in things, but the real...85%Secondary qualities do not directly reveal properties of the occasioni...83%We can have ideas of particular things distinguished by their properti...82%Obscurity in representation is distinct from misrepresentation, since ...82%
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    3 (1 for, 2 against)
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