Direct Realism Essay

729 Words2 Pages

I take direct realism to be the better version of realism, as unlike Locke, it does not infer the existence of the external world, it just assumes it. Direct realism is the theory that suggests we perceive the external world directly, and that external objects exist in reality, furthermore these objects are independent to our experience. One of the merits of this view, is the way in which it responds to the sceptic, who will argue that the realist must somehow prove, with certainty, that their experiences as of a table are in fact caused by a table (1), not an evil demon (2). However, Devitt argues that a realist does not need certainty, but only needs to change the epistemological standard, and instead ask whether it is more reasonable to
This argument follows from the belief that there is an external world that exists independently of ourselves, and does not seem to be contradictory to our experiences. Devitt argues that this belief, despite it not being certain, is easily explained along Darwinian lines, because any species that did not assume the external world exists would be presumably killed off by natural selection. While there may be other objections to this argument, I will focus on two more predominate objections. The first will be that it does not deal specifically with reality, or if objects exist, and will hence be susceptible to objection by an idealist, who would argue that the innate belief in the external world comes from us perceiving ideas in Gods mind. However, I would argue that this is not the intention of the argument, and can be challenged the same way as the sceptic’s argument. The purpose of natural selection, is to explain why it is that we have some innate belief in the external world, despite not being certain of its existence. A direct realist can respond by asking whether it is more reasonable to believe that we are all perceiving ideas in the mind of God, or if we have the belief of objects existing because if we did not, we could not be able to function, and cease

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