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Full Idea
The notion of pure sense datum is a pretty tenuous abstraction, a good deal more conjectural than the notion of an external object, a table or a sheep.
Gist of Idea
Sense-data are dubious abstractions, with none of the plausibility of tables
Source
Willard Quine (On Mental Entities [1952], p.225)
Book Ref
Quine,Willard: 'Ways of Paradox and other essays' [Harvard 1976], p.225
A Reaction
This seems to sum up the view of sense-data held by the generation after Russell and Moore. Ayer still talks about them, but Russell had already given them up. The simple challenge is - what is the evidence for their existence? Cf innate ideas.
21686 | Sense-data are dubious abstractions, with none of the plausibility of tables [Quine] |
21685 | Empiricism says evidence rests on the senses, but that insight is derived from science [Quine] |