12/13/21

The title and subtitle signal what this book is about: The Evidence of the Senses: A Realist Theory of Perception. That is, this is a work of epistemology: the branch of philosophy that covers knowledge--what it is, how we know what we know and how we can be sure of it. The back cover describes this book as a defense of "realism" and presents an argument that "perception is the discrimination of objects as entities, that the awareness of these objects is direct, and that perception is a reliable foundation for empirical knowledge.

Right up front in the Acknowledgments Kelley admits a debt to Ayn Rand, who he calls "the philosopher who had the greatest influence on my thinking about perception." That's a brave thing to do--even to acknowledge she's worthy of the name philosopher considering now many hold her in disdain. Kelley has the academic creds she lacked though--he's taught philosophy and cognitive science at the university level. He's a serious scholar, and this is a serious book on one of the thorniest subjects in philosophy. I'm not claiming parts aren't a slog. But Kelley's not just a lucid thinker but a lucid writer--and I think anyone curious about this subject will find reading this worthwhile. My one caveat is that given this was written in 1986, I wonder if more recent developments in cognitive science might have changed or refined his arguments. ( )