Abstract
It was clear in the preceding chapter that if one interpreted “seeing the sun” as “having a normal retinal reaction to the sun,” then our thirteenth and twentieth century astronomers do indeed see the same thing. But we noted a good many objections to interpreting seeing in this way. We found many cases where it could be established that a person’s retinal reaction to the sun was altogether normal, and yet the person would not be said to be seeing the sun—because of distraction, hypnosis, intoxication, somnambulism, paresis, etc.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Reference
Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical investigations (G. E. M. Anscombe, Trans.). New York: Macmillan Co.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lund, M.D. (2018). Seeing the Same Thing. In: Lund, M.D. (eds) Perception and Discovery. Synthese Library, vol 389. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69745-1_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69745-1_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69744-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69745-1
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)