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

The furniture would stand out against the softly shining white, and its line and proportions must be therefore the primary qualities to consider as-222- she bought it.

From Marriage by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)

It cannot be that the primary qualities really existed in the simple state extra animam, and then all existing things were made out of them.

From A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy by Husik, Isaac

But, in the first place, those most close to the tradition of materialism maintain that the most significant appearances, the primary qualities, are those which compose a purely quantitative and corporeal world.

From The Approach to Philosophy by Perry, Ralph Barton

Now by Locke's definition above given, only bulk, figure, situation, and motion or rest of solid parts, are primary qualities.

From Modern Painters Volume I (of V) by Ruskin, John