Direct perception in context: radical empiricist reflections on the medium

Radical empiricists at the turn of the twentieth century described organisms as experiencing the relations they maintain with their surroundings prior to any analytic separation from their environment. They notably avoided separating perception of the material environment from social life. This perspective on perceptual experience was to prove the inspiration for Gibson's ecological approach to perceptual psychology. Gibson provided a theory of how the direct perception of the organism-environment relation is possible. Central to his account was the notion of a medium for direct perception. However Gibson provided two mutually inconsistent accounts of the medium leading to problems for his radical empiricism. We develop an account of the medium that does justice to ecological psychology's radical empiricist roots. To complement this account of the medium we detail a usage-based account of information. Together they allow us to propose a novel radical empiricist view of direct perception. We then return to the notion of medium and expand it to include sociomaterial practices. We show how direct perception happens in the midst of social life, and is made possible by an active achieving and maintaining of a pragmatic relation with the environment.

Automated summary

The radical empiricists of the early 20th century described organisms experiencing their relations with the environment before any analytical separation. Gibson's ecological approach to perception was inspired by this perspective, although his inconsistent accounts of the medium posed challenges. By revisiting the concept of the medium and emphasizing the role of social factors in direct perception, a novel radical empiricist view is proposed in this study.