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Single Idea 5358

[from 'Problems of Philosophy' by Bertrand Russell, in 12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 4. Sense Data / a. Sense-data theory ]

Full Idea

Let us give the name 'sense-data' to the things that are immediately known in sensation: such things as colours, sounds, smells, hardnesses, roughnesses, and so on.

Gist of Idea

'Sense-data' are what are immediately known in sensation, such as colours or roughnesses

Source

Bertrand Russell (Problems of Philosophy [1912], Ch. 1)

Book Reference

Russell,Bertrand: 'The Problems of Philosophy' [OUP 1995], p.4


A Reaction

This idea gradually became notorious, because it seems to create a new ontological category unnecessarily, and it creates problems, such as how the intermediary interacts with us and with things. Are sense-data totally non-conceptual?