Neutral Monism
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Sense data, atoms of perception
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An assumption of a lot of discussions of perception is that there are sense-data. This is particularly the case when empiricists discuss the problem of perception. But what are sense-data? These are thought of as "atoms of perception". If we think of colours, then they would be tiny little blobs of colour – little dots, that together make up a perceptual object. Russell introduces his version of the argument from illusion in terms of sense-datal From The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell: "Thus it becomes evident that the real table, if there is one, is not the same as what we immediately experience by sight or touch or hearing. The real table, if there is one, is not immediately known to us at all, but must be an inference from what is immediately known. Hence, two very difficult questions at once arise; namely, (1) Is there a real table at all? (2) If so, what sort of object can it be? It will help us in considering these questions to have a few simple terms of which the meaning is definite and clear. Let us give the name of 'sense-data' to the things that are immediately known in sensation: such things as colours, sounds, smells, harnesses, roughnesses, and so on. We shall give the name 'sensation' to the experience of being immediately aware of these things. Thus, whenever we see a colour, we have a sensation of the colour, but the colour itself is a sense-datum, not a sensation. The colour is that of which we are immediately aware, and the awareness itself is the sensation. It is plain that if we are to know anything about the table, it must be by means of the sense-data – brown colour, oblong shape, smoothness, etc. – which we associate with the table; but, for the reasons which have been given, we cannot say that the table is the sense-data, or even that the sense-data are directly properties of the table. Thus a problem arises as to the relation of the sense-data to the real table, supposing that there is such a thing."
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Contents of
Neutral Monism
1 Sense data, atoms of perception
2 Hume, sense-data, sense impressions and atoms of experience
3 Entrapment within subjectivity, ideas
4 Neutral monism, realism, Russell, A.J. Ayer, Qualia
5 Is the whole a composite of its parts?
6 Space, time, continuity and atomism
7 Phenomenalism
8 The philosophy of logical atomism
9 Logical atomism, complex sentences and intensional contexts
10 Human identity in the context of naive realism
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