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Full Idea
The naïve direct realist holds that unperceived objects are able to retain properties of all the types we perceive them as having, which includes not only a shape and a size, but also a colour, a taste and a smell.
Gist of Idea
Naïve direct realists hold that objects retain all of their properties when unperceived
Source
Jonathan Dancy (Intro to Contemporary Epistemology [1985], 10.3)
Book Ref
Dancy,Jonathan: 'Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology' [Blackwell 1985], p.147
A Reaction
This I take to be a completely untenable view, if we are including the qualia of red, sweet or pungent among the properties. It seems uncontroversial that objects retain the capacity to cause redness etc. when they are unperceived.
| 3958 | Since our ideas vary when the real things are said to be unchanged, they cannot be true copies [Berkeley] |
| 4758 | Naïve realism leads to physics, but physics then shows that naïve realism is false [Russell] |
| 5677 | Naïve direct realists hold that objects retain all of their properties when unperceived [Dancy,J] |
| 6485 | When a red object is viewed, the air in between does not become red [Robinson,H] |
| 3875 | If reality is just what we perceive, we would have no need for a sixth sense [PG] |