Perception

[FightingFat]

‘Perception’ itself is an ambiguous word, both in Descartes and Locke. It may mean either the act of perceiving or the object perceived. Can anyone help me to better understand the consequences of this ‘ambiguity’ for subsequent philosophy?

 

[Aloysium]

‘Perception’ itself is an ambiguous word, both in Descartes and Locke. It may mean either the act of perceiving or the object perceived. Can anyone help me to better understand the consequences of this ‘ambiguity’ for subsequent philosophy?

:twocents:

See the black colour of the monitor.
The “blackness” is a quality of the monitor and of your vision.
You and the monitor are one, I suppose - instant enlightenment - mysteries that the intellect explores.

 

[Michael19682]

Interesting that this idea arose in a conversation I had today. There is something called post positivism – post positivists agree that theories, background, knowledge and values affect what you will observe; post positivists look for an underlying objective reality by accepting that the current reality is conditioned through the affects of bias(es).
This is a modified wording of the definition of post positivism given in Wikipedia.
My hope is that perception and observation will be recognized as concepts akin to each other along the theoretical spectrum.