CRITICISMS OF DIRECT REALISM

THE TIME LAG ARGUMENT

What is the Time Lag Argument?The time lag argument criticises direct realism’s claim that we perceive events and properties exactly as they are by pointing out that our perception of the world is limited by the speed of light.

Light delivers our view of the world to us, but light takes time to travel. This is most obvious in the case of distant stars and galaxies: we see them as they existed millions of years ago. However, Russell argues that light still takes time to travel even the smallest distances: for example, between his table top and his eye. Because our view of the world is always slightly out of date, so we cannot be perceiving it directly.

Defending Direct Realism While direct realists must admit that time lag means the most simple explanation of direct realism (we perceive objects as they are right now) is incorrect, it does not mean the theory as a whole is. Even though we are not directly aware of objects as they really are at this exact moment, we are still directly aware of them as they really were a few moments ago. Something has not changed, in the time it took for the light to travel, which would distort our view of the world.