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    When a human being perceives a material thing, what is di... — Carmelics
    Home/Divine Attributes
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    When a human being perceives a material thing, what is directly seen is not the material thing itself but its idea in God

    Divine AttributesPerception
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Ideas exist in God, not as modes of the human mind
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    • 2.Human knowledge is mediated by ideas
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    • 3.The immediate object of human perception is the idea, not the external material object
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Direct realism holds that perception is a causal relation between a perceiver and a mind-independent object, requiring no intermediary idea.
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    • 2.Malebranche's interposition of divine ideas generates an explanatory regress: we must then ask how God perceives the idea, and by what idea.
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    • 3.If human perception requires a divine intermediary, the causal connection between the material world and human experience becomes entirely unintelligible.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Arnauld argued against Malebranche that ideas are not entities distinct from acts of perception but are modifications of the mind itself.
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    • 2.If ideas are intrinsic modifications of the perceiving mind, there is no warrant to locate them in a divine intellect external to the human perceiver.
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    • 3.Positing ideas in God rather than in the mind violates Ockham's razor by multiplying entities beyond what perception itself requires.
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    Topics

    Divine AttributesPerception

    Connections

    1 topic

    Truth & Knowledge1 linked

    Related

    Arnauld argued against Malebranche that ideas are not entities distinct from act...Direct realism holds that perception is a causal relation between a perceiver an...Human knowledge is mediated by ideasIdeas exist in God, not as modes of the human mind
    +5 moreShow less
    If human perception requires a divine intermediary, the causal connection betwee...If ideas are intrinsic modifications of the perceiving mind, there is no warrant...Malebranche's interposition of divine ideas generates an explanatory regress: we...Positing ideas in God rather than in the mind violates Ockham's razor by multipl...The immediate object of human perception is the idea, not the external material ...

    Similar

    The immediate object of human perception is the idea, not the external...87%Every material thing has its own particular idea that corresponds to a...84%We never directly experience material things; every experience has sen...81%Ordinary perception typically requires the perceived thing to be an ob...81%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: continental-rationalism
    View source passageHide passage
    Not implausibly, Arnauld took Descartes’s claim about the ambiguity of the term “idea” to mean that “idea”, or “perception”, refers to one and the same thing, a thing which stands in two different relations. Insofar as it is related to what is known, it is called an idea; insofar as it is related to the mind, it is called a perception. This (act of) perception he took to be related to the mind as a mode of it. It is at this point that Malebranche detected the threat of skepticism. What we know,
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit