Direct realism in perception and memory

Do we, through perception and memory have direct contact with the world, or is such contact only mediated through mental representations? This is a central issue in the philosophy of psychology with the majority taking the representational view. Process philosophy, with its emphasis on a relational view of time, sides with a minority view - that of direct realism. In this paper I examine two schools of thought within the direct realist tradition - experimental psychology and process metaphysics. In particular I compare and contrast the work of what could be called the Australian realist school in psychology, with that of the prominent process philosopher, Charles Hartsborne.