Introduction

Abstract

In The Problems of Philosophy,1 Bertrand Russell develops an ancient theme in Western Philosophy: the relation of appearance to reality. In Russell’s rendering, appearance consists of our sensory experiences, reality consists of physical objects. In the tradition of Sextus Empiricus and Descartes, Russell recites a litany of arguments concerning perceptual variation. The sensory appearances of a physical object, say a table, change in shape as we move around it, diminish in size as we move away from it, alter in color when the light changes, and so on—all while the physical object itself does not change. “The real table,” Russell concludes, “if there is one, is not immediately known to us at all, but must be an inference from what is immediately known.”2