Galileo argued that we misread our perceptions in other ways: “I think that tastes, odors, colors, and so on are no more than mere names so far as the object in which we locate them are concerned, and that they reside in consciousness. Hence if the living creature were removed, all these qualities would be wiped away and annihilated.”27 We naturally think that a tomato is still there—including its taste, odor, and color—even when we don’t look. Galileo disagreed. He held that the tomato is there, but not its taste, odor, and color—these are properties of perception, not of reality as it is
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