Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in PhilosophyRussell, Bertrand
Philosophy
Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy
Russell, Bertrand
Knowledge, Theory of; Logical atomism
It may be said that our hypothesis is useless in the case when the blue
glass is never touched at all. How, in that case, are we to account for
the blue appearance of objects? And more generally, what are we to make
of the hypothetical sensations of touch which we associate with
untouched visible objects, which we know would be verified if we chose,
though in fact we do not verify them? Must not these be attributed to
permanent possession, by the objects, of the properties which touch
would reveal?
Let us consider the more general question first. Experience has taught
us that where we see certain kinds of coloured surfaces we can, by
touch, obtain certain expected sensations of hardness or softness,
tactile shape, and so on. This leads us to believe that what is seen is
usually tangible, and that it has, whether we touch it or not, the
hardness or softness which we should expect to feel if we touched it.
But the mere fact that we are able to infer what our tactile sensations
would be shows that it is not logically necessary to assume tactile
qualities before they are felt. All that is really known is that the
visual appearance in question, together with touch, will lead to certain
sensations, which can necessarily be determined in terms of the visual
appearance, since otherwise they could not be inferred from it.
We can now give a statement of the experienced facts concerning the blue
spectacles, which will supply an interpretation of common-sense beliefs
without assuming anything beyond the existence of sensible objects at
the times when they are sensible. By experience of the correlation of
touch and sight sensations, we become able to associate a certain place
in touch-space with a certain corresponding place in sight-space.
Sometimes, namely in the case of transparent things, we find that there
is a tangible object in a touch-place without there being any visible
object in the corresponding sight-place. But in such a case as that of
the blue spectacles, we find that whatever object is visible beyond the
empty sight-place in the same line of sight has a different colour from
what it has when there is no tangible object in the intervening
touch-place; and as we move the tangible object in touch-space, the blue
patch moves in sight-space. If now we find a blue patch moving in this
way in sight-space, when we have no sensible experience of an
intervening tangible object, we nevertheless infer that, if we put our
hand at a certain place in touch-space, we should experience a certain
touch-sensation. If we are to avoid non-sensible objects, this must be
taken as the whole of our meaning when we say that the blue spectacles
are in a certain place, though we have not touched them, and have only
seen other things rendered blue by their interposition.
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