Socrates’ claim that “things such as size or warmth or whiteness belong neither to the object we measure ourselves against of touch or to we who are doing the measuring or touching” (154b) is a result of taking Heraclitean and Protagorean ideas to their logical extremes. Moreover, in this conclusion, Socrates combined the Heraclitean theory of flux with Theaetetus’ claim that “Knowledge is Perception” (151e), and the Protagorean Man-Is-The-Measure doctrine. These three theses are combined together to properly capture Socrates’ understanding of perception and to make Theaetetus’ view of knowledge as perception plausible. Socrates alters Theaetetus’ initial suggestion because the claim that knowledge is just perception is a self-defeating statement.
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This notion of privacy is important because it secures for perception the requirements for knowledge: inerrancy and incorrigibility. Perception is incorrigible in the sense that no one can correct a perceiver about what he or she perceives at a given time, and that an individual cannot even correct his or her self about what he or she is perceiving at a given time. Furthermore, in addition to being private to individuals, perceived properties are also private to the specific times at which they are produced. In addition to no one having access to what anyone else is perceiving at any given moment, individuals are also unable re-perceive what they perceived at an earlier time. Socrates first supports this idea that perception is private and unique by appealing to the fact that perception is not the same between animals and men. Secondly, Socrates shows that perception is private and unique by appealing to the fact that perception differs from person to person. Lastly, Socrates appeals to the fact that perception is private and unique by appealing to the fact that an individual can perceive the same exact object in two different ways on two different occasions. On these grounds, it necessarily follows that the properties that can be abstracted from an object, without impacting the essence of said object, properties such as size, warmth, and color, neither exist in the perceived object, nor in the individual perceiving the object. This is what Socrates means when he says that “things such as size or warmth or whiteness belong neither to the object we measure ourselves against of touch or to we who are doing the measuring or touching”
This notion of privacy is important because it secures for perception the requirements for knowledge: inerrancy and incorrigibility. Perception is incorrigible in the sense that no one can correct a perceiver about what he or she perceives at a given time, and that an individual cannot even correct his or her self about what he or she is perceiving at a given time. Furthermore, in addition to being private to individuals, perceived properties are also private to the specific times at which they are produced. In addition to no one having access to what anyone else is perceiving at any given moment, individuals are also unable re-perceive what they perceived at an earlier time. Socrates first supports this idea that perception is private and unique by appealing to the fact that perception is not the same between animals and men. Secondly, Socrates shows that perception is private and unique by appealing to the fact that perception differs from person to person. Lastly, Socrates appeals to the fact that perception is private and unique by appealing to the fact that an individual can perceive the same exact object in two different ways on two different occasions. On these grounds, it necessarily follows that the properties that can be abstracted from an object, without impacting the essence of said object, properties such as size, warmth, and color, neither exist in the perceived object, nor in the individual perceiving the object. This is what Socrates means when he says that “things such as size or warmth or whiteness belong neither to the object we measure ourselves against of touch or to we who are doing the measuring or touching”