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Full Idea
We cannot ask, 'Can sense-data exist without being given?' for that is like asking, 'Can husbands exist without being married?'
Clarification
'Given' means presented for experience
Gist of Idea
Ungiven sense-data can no more exist than unmarried husbands
Source
Bertrand Russell (The Relation of Sense-Data to Physics [1914], §III)
Book Ref
Russell,Bertrand: 'Mysticism and Logic' [Unwin 1989], p.143
A Reaction
This follows hard on Idea 6460, which introduces the idea of 'sensibilia' for things which are like sense-data, but are not 'given'. This is a new distinction in 1914, which he had not made in 1912.
Related Idea
Idea 6460 'Sensibilia' are identical to sense-data, without actually being data for any mind [Russell]
21583 | When sense-data change, there must be indistinguishable sense-data in the process [Russell] |
6459 | We do not know whether sense-data exist as objects when they are not data [Russell] |
6460 | 'Sensibilia' are identical to sense-data, without actually being data for any mind [Russell] |
6461 | Ungiven sense-data can no more exist than unmarried husbands [Russell] |