Overview of Indirect Realism

Indirect Realism, also known as representationalism or epistemological dualism, is a philosophical concept concerning our perception of reality.
It suggests that we do not perceive the world directly, but through ideas or representations in our minds.

Key Concepts of Indirect Realism

According to Indirect Realism, the immediate objects of perception are mind-dependent entities known as sense-data.
An external world does exist, but we do not have direct access to it. Instead, we access it through our sense-data.
This perception can be flawed or incomplete, as our mind interprets the world and may not represent it accurately.
Although the external world exists independently of our minds, we can only ever know our representations of it.

Unlike Direct Realism, which suggests we perceive the world exactly as it is, Indirect Realism maintains a degree of separation between perception and reality.
Indirect Realism challenges the notion of naïve realism – the belief that things are just as we perceive them.

Key philosophers associated with this concept include John Locke, George Berkeley, and Immanuel Kant.
Berkeley, for instance, argued that objects of perception are actually ideas in the mind and not physical entities.
Kant emphasized the role of the mind in crafting our perception, suggesting the human mind is not a blank slate, but actively shapes our understanding of reality.

A strength of Indirect Realism is that it explains perceptual phenomena like illusions or hallucinations, which cannot be accounted for by Direct Realism.
However, a common criticism is the problem of perceptual skepticism. If we only perceive representations of reality, it becomes difficult to prove the existence of an external world.
This principle is often referred to as the veil of perception critique.
Another critique relates to the breaking of causal efficacy, as it’s hard to explain how mind-independent objects can cause mind-dependent sense-data.

Indirect Realism posits that our perception of reality is an interpretation made by our minds, rather than a direct apprehension.
It has been influential in various fields of philosophy and has robust strengths and criticisms to consider.