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Key People:
Bertrand Russell
George Berkeley
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epistemology
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sense-data, Entities that are the direct objects of sensation. Examples of sense-data are the circular image one sees when viewing the face of a penny and the oblong image one sees when viewing the penny from an angle. Other examples are the image one sees with one’s eyes closed after staring at a bright light (an afterimage) and the dagger Macbeth sees floating before him (a hallucination). In each case, according to sense-data theorists, there is something of which one is directly aware, and that something is the sense-datum.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Brian Duignan.