Abstract

This essay aims to tackle the meaning of the concept of illusions in relation to the terms “appearance” and “deception of the senses”. We intend to examine some cases of illusion to show how the idea of “a sensorial deception” is already a judgment about an experience: indeed, the senses themselves do not deceive. Deception implies an epistemological position on reality. The same can be said of the relationship between appearance and reality: the appearance of illusions, as compared to reality, is an epistemological question rather than an ontological one. Illusions are part of reality and hence they convey a sense of it.