Idealism

[lilwilly]

I believe the confusion that has led to the philosophical doctrine of idealism lies within the nature of sense-data in distinction to a sensation. A sense-datum is a logical object which stands distinct from any subject. It merely is and nothing more. Whereas a sensation is logically complex and involves a subject, the one perceiving, and the

Comments

[godinshackles]

Question: Different subjects perceive sense-data differently, especially if you take into account the differences across species with vastly varying mechanisms of perceiving sense-data. Whose perception of reality is most accurate? Hell, this is why I'm so bad at epistemology.

[lilwilly]

Well, it depends upon what you mean by "most accurate"? However, I shall try to answer your question anyhow. Sense-data is factual; the dualism of truth and falsehood does not apply to it. There is and cannot be such a thing as a "false sensation or sense-data". All sense-data is thus infallible, including hallucination, dreams, etc. Hallucinations and dreams are just as real as seeing one's room or feeling the softness of one's pillow. They are, after all, real sensations that are sense-data of some form or another. There can be no question to the fact that a certain subject perceives a certain sense-datum. The place where error comes into the scheme of knowledge is when one proceeds to draw inferences from the sense-data. These inferences may very well be erroneous as they would not correspond with the rest of one's experiences, or, logically speaking, the series of classes of one's experience.