Summary A* AQA A-Level Philosophy: Indirect realism - Complete AO1 Notes, Essay Plans & AO2 Evaluation (with Weighting, Integration & Counterarguments)

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Indirect realism
-​ Indirect realism is a realist theory and thus argues that (1) a
mind-independent external world (and its objects and respective properties)
exists
-​ (2) We immediately perceive mind-dependent sense-data and their
properties rather than these mind-independent objects and their properties.
-​ (3) Our sense-data represent these physical mind-independent objects and
their properties (meaning that we indirectly perceive the mind-independent
external world).
-​ (4) Our sense-data are caused by these mind-dependent objects and their
properties (i.e. by their effects on our physical bodies/brains).


John Locke’s Primary and Secondary Quality Distinction
-​ A ‘quality’ is ‘the power to produce an idea in our mind’
-​ ‘Primary qualities’ are ‘utterly inseparable from a body, whatever state it is in.
Qualities of this kind are the ones that a body doesn’t lose, however much it
alters, whatever force it used on it, however finely it is divided’
-​ Locke offers the following examples: extension, shape, mobility (motion and
rest), and number.
-​ Primary qualities are intrinsic properties (properties something has in virtue
of how it is regardless of how anything else is) and therefore
mind-independent properties (as they are what they are irrespective of how
they are related to any minds).
-​ Primary qualities are measurable.
-​ Primary qualities can be detected by more than one sense (eg sight and
touch).
-​ Primary qualities are not caused by/grounded in secondary qualities.

, -​ Locke claims that primary qualities of objects are those properties of objects
that cause ideas that resemble them in those respects.
-​ ‘Secondary qualities’ are ‘really nothing but powers to produce various
sensations in us by their primary qualities’.
-​ Examples include colours, smell, sound, and taste.
-​ Secondary qualities are dispositional qualities (powers), relational properties
(properties something has in virtue of its relation to other things) and
mind-dependent properties (properties something has in virtue of its relation
to our minds).
-​ Secondary qualities are not measurable. Secondary qualities cannot be
detected by more than one sense
-​ Secondary qualities are (partly) caused by/grounded in primary qualities.
-​ Locke gives the example of water that is felt to be both hot (to one hand) and
cold (to another hand). The explanation is that warmth and cold are not
mind-independent qualities of an object but mind-dependent qualities which
depend on the mind of a perceiver.



The argument that indirect realism leads to skepticism about the existence of
mind-independent objects
-​ If we never directly perceive mind-independent objects, our perceptual
experiences can never give us direct, unmediated evidence that such objects
exist
-​ Any claim that mind-independent objects exist would therefore have to be
inferred from claims about our sense-data behind a veil of perception
-​ An posteriori argument cannot justify the inference to mind-independent
objects because all synthetic evidence is itself mediated by sense-data
-​ Russell makes the point that it doesn’t help to ask anyone else if their
experiences corroborate Russell’s own since the ontological status of ‘anyone
else’ is part of what has been brought into question.
-​ Moreover, an a priori argument cannot justify the inference because the
existence of mind-independent objects is a synthetic claim about the world,
not an analytic claim. As such, it cannot be established through reason alone,
since a priori reasoning can at best reveal relations between ideas

, -​ Therefore, neither experience (a posteriori argument) nor reason (a priori
argument) can justify such an inference.
-​ Therefore, the indirect realist cannot know that there is any
mind-independent, external world beyond what is directly perceived


Locke’s argument from the involuntary nature of the senses
-​ Locke’s response is an abductive argument for the existence of a
mind-independent, external world and thus if the premises are true, then we
have good reason to accept the conclusion as the most plausible
-​ Locke observes that sense experience is involuntary whereas, the ideas that
are mind-dependent and stem from our own imagination are under our
control and voluntary
-​ Locke gives the example that he can shut his eyes and choose to recall the
idea of light but if he turns his eyes to the sky at noon he cannot ‘avoid’ the
idea of light being produced in him
-​ He has no control over the sense experience of primary and secondary
qualities caused by the sky. These sensations "force" themselves on him.
-​ “I find that I can’t avoid having those ideas produced in my mind.”
-​ If all objects of our sense experience were mind-dependent, all our
experience would be voluntary.
-​ The fact that our experiences are involuntary suggests that they therefore
must come from outside of ourselves, and are most likely caused by
mind-independent physical objects



Locke’s argument from the coherence of various kinds of experience
-​ Locke’s response is an abductive argument for the existence of a
mind-independent, external world and thus if the premises are true, then we
have good reason to accept the conclusion as the most plausible
explanation, even though it is not guaranteed with certainty
-​ Locke observes that when we are perceiving an object all five of our sense
organs come together, conform to each other and corroborate when
perceiving sense-data