The Attack on the Senses by Being Effects

There have been various methods to attack the senses by them being limited, one such method is by decrying that sensory impressions are mere effects of the actual entities that we perceive. This ignores that A is A–everything, including the senses and what they perceive, is what it is–and that from this we derive the law of causality—that sensory impressions refer to an interaction between an entity and a sense organ, the entity causing a certain response in the sense organ, does not imply that said sense impression is invalid. This certainly means that it is limited in its capacity, but not that it is invalid—the effect must have a cause, that cause is a real existent, with real attributes that cause it to effect the sense organs in some particular way.

Those who condemn the senses as deceptive on the grounds that sense qualities are merely effects on men are guilty of rewriting reality. Their viewpoint amounts to an ultimatum delivered to the universe: “I demand that the senses give me not effects, but irreducible primaries. That is how I would have created reality.” As in all cases of this fallacy, such a demand ignores the fact that what is metaphysically given is an absolute. Perception is necessarily a process of interaction: there is no way to perceive an object that does not somehow impinge on one’s body. Sense qualities, therefore, must be effects. To reject the senses for this reason is to reject them for existing—while yearning for a fantasy form of perception that in logic is not even thinkable.¹