more from Bertrand Russell

Single Idea 7549

[catalogued under 12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 4. Sense Data / b. Nature of sense-data]

Full Idea

My meaning may be made plainer by saying that if my body could remain in exactly the same state in which it is, though my mind had ceased to exist, precisely that object which I now see when I see a flash would exist, though I should not see it.

Gist of Idea

If my body literally lost its mind, the object seen when I see a flash would still exist

Source

Bertrand Russell (The Ultimate Constituents of Matter [1915], p.126)

Book Reference

Russell,Bertrand: 'Mysticism and Logic' [Unwin 1989], p.126


A Reaction

Zombies, 70 years before Robert Kirk! Sense-data are physical. It is interesting to see a philosopher as committed to empiricism, anti-spiritualism and the priority of science as this, still presenting an essentially dualist picture of perception.