Representational realism is one of the most important philosophical theories having emerged from Enlightenment thinking. It provides a means by which the differences between subjective and objective perception can be explained. For the philosopher John Locke, it was a viewpoint that an individual’s sensory perception represents objects that exist in the world and that a person experiences these objects through the representations created in the mind. Locke did not, like Descartes, believe in the existence of intrinsic ideas but held that the human mind is a kind of interpreter, or explainer, of objects. Thus, an external object is perceived by the human mind as an idea that is precisely representative of the external subject’s primary qualities. The object’s different qualities are an important part of representational realism.
An object’s primary qualities are those aspects that everyone perceives in the same way; qualities that are not subject to variation. In other words, qualities like size and shape are considered primary according to Lockean theory. Secondary qualities are those that the individual accords, or applies to, the object in question. Examples of secondary qualities would include taste and sound, which are not uniform modes of perception but depend largely on the individual’s physical make-up and perspective. For Locke, it is in this secondary realm that a human being is apt to be mistaken concerning the nature of a particular object because it is here that interpretation obscures perception. “Made by the mind” is a phrase Locke used to explain this phenomenon (Ariew and Watkins, 357).
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"Locke, Descartes, Berkeley and the Nature of Perception".
Descartes parts ways with Locke over the existence of innate ideas, ideas that originate in the mind. Descartes believed that he could determine basic principles of the natural world based on innate ideas that were present in the mind. These, coupled with observation, could help explain natural processes and qualities. Locke, on the other hand, believed that an inherent lack of objectivity left the way clear to misperception and misinterpretation. For Locke, the mind is a basic perceptive instrument that is apt to fail the individual who seeks to go beyond a basic mental representation of that which exists in the world. It is over the idea of primary and secondary qualities that some philosophers have taken issue with the idea of representational realism.
The 18th-century empiricist George Berkeley disagreed with Lockean representational realism based in large part on the doctrine of primary and secondary qualities. According to Berkeley, all qualities are ultimately subjective. For example, he held that even those qualities that seem universally objective are subjective based on the fact that the perceiver brings to their observation his or her own personal characteristics. Primary qualities, as Locke understood them, are nothing more than sensations themselves. It is thus that Berkeley is centrally concerned with the nature of sensation itself (Ariew and Watkins, 646). It was he who “discovered and demonstrated that no sensation whatever could possibly resemble any quality of an insentient being, such as body is supposed to be…” (645). In Berkeley’s conception, the perceiver cannot represent an object because perception itself is a variant based on the individual doing the perceiving.
One example of the difference between Berkeley and the theory of representational realism can be found in the way that two people may perceive the size of an object in the heavens, such as the moon or sun. If size is a primary quality, one that is objective because everyone views it the same, then the appearance of an object’s size disproves this assertion since the size of such an object will be different based on the individual viewing it. The moon, which we understand to be massive, may nevertheless only appear to be the size of a large coin to an observer who is otherwise unaware of the moon’s actual size in relation to the earth. In other words, size is truly in the eye of the beholder.
Nevertheless, it is to Locke that the more rational explanation belongs. Because an individual may view the moon as coin-sized does not necessarily mean that the actual size of the moon is any different than it truly is. Thus, one must also give credit to Descartes’ belief in the existence of innate ideas within the human mind, ideas which can be attributed to “common sense” as much as they can be identified as innate intelligence. If there is a point beyond which a theory may be described as overly empirical, then Berkeley’s could well fall into that category. It may well be true that there is an intrinsic variation in the nature of sensation among different perceivers. But intelligence as a perceptive quality, or characteristic, must surely be accorded its proper due in the process.
- Ariew, Roger and Watkins, Eric. Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources, 2nd edition. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 2009.
