primary qualities

British  

plural noun

1. (in empiricist philosophy) those properties of objects that are directly known by experience, such as size, shape, and number

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Example Sentences

This bus has primary qualities of solidity and space occupancy that exist independently of our perceptual machinery and that can do us injury.

From Scientific American • Aug. 27, 2019

But if this be true, the use of the term 'look' or 'appear' in connexion with colour involves a difficulty which does not arise when it is used in connexion with the primary qualities.

From Kant's Theory of Knowledge by Prichard, Harold Arthur

The primary qualities are qualities of body, as perceived in relation to the percipient mind, i.e., of the phenomenal body perceived as in space.

From The Philosophy of the Conditioned by Mansel, Henry Longueville

Return We have not noticed his iterativeness, his reiterativeness, because it flowed naturally from his primary qualities.

From Spare Hours by Brown, John

There must be perception and conception, both vigorous, quick and true; you must have these two primary qualities, the one first, the other last, in every great painter.

From Spare Hours by Brown, John