Naïve Realism

Naïve realism is the name for a philosophical theory of visual perception and the nature of visual experiences (though the theory may be generalized to the other senses). According to naïve realism, veridical visual experiences are relations to material objects that exist whether or not they are perceived and so are mind-independent (naïve realism is therefore sometimes referred to as the relational theory of perception); such experiences have material objects as constituents—the objects of visual awareness are literally part of the experience. Because hallucinatory experiences are not experiences of material objects, it follows that you could not be having the visual experience that you are now having if you were having a hallucination. Therefore, naïve realists hold a disjunctive theory of visual experiences: A visual ...