I actually didn't mean to say "via my senses", what I meant is that I definitely perceive things, period. That encompasses both of your scenarios. Thanks for the correction!
It's more correct to say you have experiences of perception. But those experiences are not always true (the tree you dream of seeing is imaginary), and thus it's possible to doubt them, and also create skeptical scenarios where you never truly perceive anything.
Arguably, Neo never actually perceived anything until he took the red pill and woke up.
> Arguably, Neo never actually perceived anything until he took the red pill and woke up.
I don't think that's possible. His perceptual faculties would have been completely undeveloped in that case, so he wouldn't have even been able to see, stand, hear, or anything. Arguably, the matrix made use of his perceptual faculties. It would be orders of magnitude easier to do so than trying to reproduce them in the vat apparatus.
I think people are fond of trying to separate perception and experience, but I'm not sure that's valid. I don't think an eliminativist would make this distinction, for example.
> I think people are fond of trying to separate perception and experience, but I'm not sure that's valid. I don't think an eliminativist would make this distinction, for example.
Problem for the eliminativist is that there are experiences which aren't perceptual. The reason for thinking we can separate perceptual experience from perceiving is because it is brain activation which results in an experience, which can happen without sensory stimulation. When we dream, we're activating our visual and auditory cortexes to create those experiences. Electrodes or magnetic stimulation can do the same on a much cruder level. And a schizophrenic may hear voices because their brain fails to distinguish between internal thoughts and external voices.
> When we dream, we're activating our visual and auditory cortexes to create those experiences.
Right, and because there's little difference I generally refer to them all as perceptual. It seems perfectly cogent to say "electrode stimulation can create visual perceptions". I think "experience" in most such sentences is simply redundant. It either refers specifically to the activation of perceptual faculties, or it refers to something "beyond" perceptual faculties which may not exist (qualia).
