Bertrand Russells criticism of direct realism Essay

Bertrand Russells criticism of direct realism - Essay Example To begin with, it may be important to highlight several important aspects of the view which was developed by Bertrand Russell. Thus, he questions whether there is some kind of knowledge that everyone would agree on. He concludes that the knowledge about the objects that exist in reality can be such knowledge as two people who walk into the same room would see in the similar manner. However, that is exactly the kind of approach that he wants to criticism, suggesting that the knowledge that he was of the ordinary objects (he particularly focuses on the example of the table) is, in fact, relative. Russell points out that the perception of a physical object is largely conditioned by the state of the observer; for example the color of the table will change based on the angle of view. The same can be said about texture shape and so on. Keeping in mind that all these states exist simultaneously, he argues that it is not logical to talk about the â€Å"real† color or shape of the tabl e.The philosopher in question then moves to the issue of norm in terms of determining properties of the object. Having established that the color can be bright (under direct sunlight), moderate (under artificial light) and invisible (if perceived in the darkness), Russell notes that most people would agree that the â€Å"real† color is the one found in the second case. However, in his view this leads to â€Å"favoritism† that can hardly be justified since it is grounded on such vague assumptions as â€Å"normal spectator †¦ an ordinary point of view †¦ usual conditions of light†.