On Perception

“…the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat,”

Gen. 3:6

“Then saith He to Thomas, ‘Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.'”

Jn. 20:27

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life…  That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you…”

Jn. 1:1, 3

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Order of Contents

Article  1
Historical  4


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Article

Feser, Edward – ch. 4, ‘Psychology’  in Aquinas: a Beginner’s Guide  (Oxford: OneWorld, 2010), pp. 114-47

Feser, as an Analytical Thomist, here, for beginners, describes and argues the direct realist view of perception of Aquinas, that persons don’t simply know mental representations of objects, but know, in a way, external objects themselves.

Wiki: “Aristotle was the first to provide a description of direct realism.  In On the Soul he describes how a see-er is informed of the object itself by way of the hylomorphic form carried over the intervening material continuum with which the eye is impressed.”


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Historical

On the Whole of History

Hamlyn, David Walter – Sensation & Perception: a History of the Philosophy of Perception  (London: Routledge, 1963)  220 pp.  ToC

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On the Middle-Ages to the Early Modern Era

eds. Knuuttila, Simo & Pekka Karkkainen – Theories of Perception in Medieval & Early Modern Philosophy  (Dordrecht: Springer, 2008)  310 pp.  ToC

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On Aquinas

Lisska, Anthony J. – Aquinas’s Theory of Perception: An Analytic Reconstruction  Pre  (Oxford University Press, 2016)  300 pp.  ToC

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On Scotus

Cross, Richard – ch. 1, ‘Sensation’  in Duns Scotus’s Theory of Cognition  (Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 18-42

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Related Pages

Metaphysics

Philosophy