Phil 110 Introduction To Philosophy The Truth Of A Table

PHIL 110: Introduction to Philosophy The Truth of a Table It is a common belief that a table exists, and it is also true that a table does not look the same from any two perspectives. Therefore, it is not the same table from every perspective, leading to the conclusion that the true table may not exist. In this essay, I will defend that an object is not defined by its physical attributes, and the object that is experienced during viewing is not the true object. First, I will provide a paraphrase of Bertrand Russell’s “Appearance and Reality”. Second, I will discuss an objection to this argument posed by Berkeley about God. Last, I will argue that Russell’s ideology of objects is correct. In “Appearance and Reality," Russell argues that a table,

Russell’s example begins by presenting something familiar to the reader, a table. He describes the table based on its physical attributes and presents the idea that there are multiple colors that make up the table, depending on your point of view and the direction of light. This results in an infinite number of color compositions to fill the table, meaning that there is no one true color that can be defined as the color of the table. This line of thought can be applied to other attributes of the table, including shape, texture, and size, which all vary based on the location of the viewer and other aspects of the room. Because one point of view is not ever more correct than another, the physical attributes, or “sense data," of the table are ambiguous. Without absolute facts about the physical attributes of the table, the existence of the table, and of all matters, can be questioned. Russell poses the question: “Is there a real table at all? “If so, what sort of object can it be?” These questions were then rephrased to convey Russell’s broader argument: “Is there any such thing as