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Single Idea 4758

[filed under theme 11. Knowledge Aims / C. Knowing Reality / 1. Perceptual Realism / a. Naïve realism ]

Full Idea

Naïve realism leads to physics, and physics, if true, shows that naïve realism is false. Therefore naïve realism, if true, is false, therefore it is false.

Gist of Idea

Naïve realism leads to physics, but physics then shows that naïve realism is false

Source

Bertrand Russell (An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth [1940], p.13)

Book Ref

Russell,Bertrand: 'An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth' [Penguin 1967], p.13

A Reaction

I'm inclined to agree with this, though once you have gone off and explored representation and sense data you may be driven back to naïve realism again.

The 15 ideas from 'An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth'

16477 Asserting not-p is saying p is false [Russell]
16484 There are four experiences that lead us to talk of 'some' things [Russell]
16486 The physical world doesn't need logic, but the mental world does [Russell]
16483 Disjunction may also arise in practice if there is imperfect memory. [Russell]
16480 A disjunction expresses indecision [Russell]
16479 'Or' expresses hesitation, in a dog at a crossroads, or birds risking grabbing crumbs [Russell]
16481 'Or' expresses a mental state, not something about the world [Russell]
16487 Maybe the 'or' used to describe mental states is not the 'or' of logic [Russell]
16475 A 'heterological' predicate can't be predicated of itself; so is 'heterological' heterological? Yes=no! [Russell]
16482 All our knowledge (if verbal) is general, because all sentences contain general words [Russell]
16476 For simple words, a single experience can show that they are true [Russell]
16485 Perception can't prove universal generalisations, so abandon them, or abandon empiricism? [Russell]
16478 A mother cat is paralysed if equidistant between two needy kittens [Russell]
2947 Questions wouldn't lead anywhere without the law of excluded middle [Russell]
4758 Naïve realism leads to physics, but physics then shows that naïve realism is false [Russell]