Blackwell Reference Online

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E pistemology Also called the veil of appearance. Locke and many later empiricists have claimed that what we perceive are not external objects themselves, but are sensory ideas or sense-data that are produced in our minds by external things. These ideas, like a veil, stand as intermediaries between the conscious subjects and external objects. Our senses can only show us sense-data or appearances . Such a theory is different from Platonism , which claims that perception and appearance are unreliable and that reality can be known only through the intellect. The view also differs from naive realism , which holds that what we sense is the object itself rather than its appearance, and from phenomenalism , which holds that external objects are constructed out of actual and possible sense-data. Because appearances can hide the real nature of things and prevent us from knowing reality as it is, the theory of the veil of perception has led to skeptical challenges to our knowledge of the external world. “We are restricted to the passing show on the veil of perception, with no possibility of extending our knowledge to the world beyond.” Stroud, The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism ... log in or subscribe to read full text