Translation: New Reasons for Realism

Abstract

James J. Gibson (1904-1979) was an American psychologist who, together with Eleanor J. Gibson (1910-2002), developed an imposing research program known as ecological psychology. Gibson is considered one of the most important authors in the field of visual perception and was ranked among the 100 most cited psychologists of the 20th century. In the essay translated here, Gibson is explicit in his quest to connect his studies in psychology to broader philosophical questions. His text has great relevance for the philosophical debate on realism and on how to achieve it via theories of perception, in the author's case, articulating the theory that the mind actively and directly perceives environmental stimuli. His essay is situated in an intellectual context dominated by two major research paradigms: behaviorism and cognitivism. In contrast, the paradigm articulated by Gibson denies central assumptions of these dominant paradigms, such as, for example, the assumption that perception is passive and instantaneous. For Gibson, perception is active, direct, and involves perception-action cycles over time. Although moving away from classical cognitivism and behaviorism, ecological psychology approaches embodied and enactive theories of cognition.