Full Idea
If only modes of sensing are ostensively available, ..then it is a category mistake to see any resemblance between what is available and properties of bodies; one could as sensibly say that a physical body is proud or lazy as that it is red or square.
Clarification
'Ostensive' means directly pointed out
Gist of Idea
If there are only 'modes' of sensing, then an object can no more be red or square than it can be proud or lazy.
Source
Howard Robinson (Perception [1994], VII.5)
Book Reference
Robinson,Howard: 'Perception' [Routledge 2001], p.176
A Reaction
This is an objection to the 'adverbial' theory of perception. It looks to me like a devastating objection, if the theory is meant to cover primary qualities as well as secondary. Red could be a mode of perception, but not square, surely?