ABSTRACT
Physical objects are perceptual particulars, contends Gale, thanks to their spatial-temporal locations. These locations make possible the very idea of a physical object existing when we do not perceive it, since it can be thought of as existing at time and place coordinates when and where nobody perceives it. That God has an inner life suffices to give conceptual content to the claim that God, in virtue of having an inner life not dependent on God's being perceived, is the common object of perceptions. In the epistemological argument, Gale's idea is that unless it were possible for there to be evidence that an alleged object was the common object of different perceptual perceptions, one could not be justified in thinking one had perceived a substantive, perceptual particular rather than having experienced a mere phenomenal particular, private to one's own perception.
