Naïve Realism and (Some) High‐Level Illusions

ABSTRACT So‐called high‐levelists about perceptual experience claim that we can perceive not only low‐level properties such as colour and shape but also high‐level properties such as natural kind properties. Although various proponents of opposing theories of perception agree on this high‐levelist view, it is seldom asked which theories of perception have resources to account for high‐level perception. In this paper, I raise this question for naïve realism and argue that if perceptual experiences present “high‐level” properties, certain high‐level illusions pose a problem for naïve realism. Specifically, I maintain that the naïve realist's strategies for addressing illusions of low‐level properties are unpromising when it comes to addressing illusions of high‐level properties.