Paul E. Engelhardt

Direct or indirect realism? Assessing conflicting folk conceptions of vision

Synthese April 21, 2026 Eugen Fischer, Keith Allen, Paul E. Engelhardt

Abstract Longstanding philosophical debates about the nature of perception revolve around a clash between Direct Realist and Indirect Realist conceptions of vision. These deny and affirm, respectively, that vision involves awareness of mental images which represent the physical objects of sight. The assumption that ‘the’ common-sense conception of vision is Direct Realist shapes these debates....