We now come to the final theory of perception, that of Phenomenalism. Like Idealism, Phenomenalism argues that our knowledge about the world comes through our senses. Furthermore, it also shifts knowledge about the world away from any talk of "the object itself" and replaces it with our experiences of it.

This is a little bit more difficult to grasp than the previous theories, mainly because it is a theory of truth and not just an account of perception. We shall look at definitions of truth, knowledge and belief in the next unit, so we shall only touch upon this theory here.

Statements about the World

The Phenomenalist view argues that when we talk about a thing - such as a tree - we are actually talking about our perceptions of it. So, instead of saying, "The leaves on the tree are green," I say, "I have a perception of a tree with green leaves." This might seem to be a trifling difference, but notice that by doing so we are not saying anything about the tree, only our perception of it.

In this way, by talking only about our perception and experience of things, we are not led into saying things that cannot be backed by the evidence of our senses.

Exercise

Which of the following statements would a phenomenalist say could be backed up by experience?

Statement	Backed up by Experience?	Reason
I see a tree with green leaves		You see the leaves, so the statement is backed up by experience.
All swans are white		No matter how many times you saw white swans, this could not guarantee that they were all white (the problem of induction).
2 + 2 = 4		Although you might say that experience teaches us this, you really need it to be true before you apply it. Therefore, Ayer creates a separate category for this sort of a priori truth.
Maths is beautiful		Whilst beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, it is not really visible in the same way as, say, the colour red.
Shakespeare is a great writer		We could maybe verify that a lot of people think so, but this is not the same as proving the statement itself.

How did you do? Click here to see my answers.

Sense and Nonsense

What do you think? Can all of these statements be backed up by experience? If not, what status do they then have? Phenomenalists, such as the 20th century English philosopher A. J. Ayer, thought that they were literally non-sensical. We shall look at this view in more detail in the next unit.