The Structure of Perceptual Experience E-Book

James Stazicker

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Ratio Special Issues
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 296

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

This innovative new collection features six original essays exploring the spatial, temporal, and other structures that shape conscious perception.

• Includes cutting-edge research on an increasingly influential topic in the philosophy of the mind
• Explores structural differences between the senses and between different theories of perceptual experience
• Offers innovative new arguments on the philosophy of perception written by leading scholars in the field

Leseprobe

Ratio Book Series

Each book in the series is devoted to a philosophical topic of particular contemporary interest, and features invited contributions from leading authorities in the chosen field.

Volumes published so far:

The Structure of Perceptual Experience, edited by James Stazicker Irrealism in Ethics, edited by Bart Streumer Classifying Reality, edited by David S. Oderberg Developing Deontology: New Essays in Ethical Theory, edited by Brad Hooker Agents and Their Actions, edited by Maximilian de Gaynesford Philosophy of Literature, edited by Severin Schroeder Essays on Derek Parfit's On What Matters, edited by Jussi Suikkanen and John Cottingham Justice, Equality and Constructivism, edited by Brian Feltham Wittgenstein and Reason, edited by John Preston The Meaning of Theism, edited by John Cottingham Metaphysics in Science, edited by Alice Drewery The Self?, edited by Galen Strawson On What We Owe to Each Other, edited by Philip Stratton-Lake The Philosophy of Body, edited by Mike Proudfoot Meaning and Representation, edited by Emma Borg Arguing with Derrida, edited by Simon Glendinning Normativity, edited by Jonathan Dancy

THE STRUCTURE OFPERCEPTUAL EXPERIENCE

Edited by

JAMES STAZICKER

This edition first published 2015 Originally published as Volume 27, Issue 4 of RatioChapters © 2015 The Authors Book compilation © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Registered OfficeJohn Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom

Editorial Offices350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell.

The rights of James Stazicker to be identified as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available for this book.

ISBN 9781119061083 (paperback)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

CONTENTS

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

INTRODUCTION

Notes

1 IS THE SENSE-DATA THEORY A REPRESENTATIONALIST THEORY?

1. Introduction

2. Representationalism

3. The Sense-Data Theory

4. Is Sense-Data Theory Compatible with Minimal Representationalism?

5. Is Sense-Data Theory Compatible with Weak, Strong, and Reductive Representationalism?

6. Conclusion

Notes

References

2 NAIVE REALIST PERSPECTIVES ON SEEING BLURRILY

1. Introduction

2. Some Aspects of Naive Realism

3. Seeing Blurrily: A Challenge

4. Developing Naive Realism

5. Seeing Blurrily and Ambitious Naive Realism

6. Seeing Blurrily and Robust Naive Realism

7. Conclusion

Notes

3 PERCEPTUAL GUIDANCE

1. Introduction

2. Guiding Experiences

3. Distinctions

4. Some Perceptual Guidance is Conscious

5. Conscious Guidance is (sometimes) Perceptual

6. Conclusion

Notes

4 THE PERCEPTION OF ACTIVITY

1. A Problem about the Perception of Events

2. Some Initial Responses

3. Activity and the Perception of Activity

4. Conclusion

Notes

5 AUDITORY APPEARANCES

Notes

6 SPACE, TIME AND MOLYNEUX'S QUESTION

1. Molyneux's Question and the Temporal Variation

2. Grush and the Skills-Based View

3. Explaining ASYMMETRY

4. The ‘different spaces, one time’ Explanation

5. Problems for the DSST Explanation

6. The Structural Explanation

7. Perspective, Modality-Specificity and Objectivity

Notes

INDEX

EULA

List of Tables

Chapter 1

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Chapter

Pages

vii

1

2

3

4

5

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

149

150

151

152

153

154

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

James Stazicker Department of Philosophy, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom

Fiona Macpherson Philosophy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Craig French Trinity Hall, Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Sebastian Watzl University of Oslo, Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature, Oslo, Norway

Thomas Crowther Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom

Matthew Nudds Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom

Louise Richardson Department of Philosophy, University of York, York, United Kingdom

INTRODUCTION

James Stazicker

Perceptual experiences – for instance, conscious episodes of seeing and hearing – are variously structured. To understand the kind of cognitive contact with the world which perceptual experience provides, we must understand these structures.

We perceive structural features of our environment such as spatial, temporal and perhaps causal relations among perceived objects and events. But arguably perceptual experiences themselves are also structured by relations among the things we perceive, in ways which are not fully captured by the idea that we perceive these relations. When you hear a material event like a collision, you hear it by hearing the sound it causes. When you see a material object, you do so by seeing some of its constituent surfaces. On the face of it, this reflects an explanatory structure within perceptual experience: you experience one thing because you experience another, exploiting the causal or constitutive connection between them.

Arguably, perceptual experiences also have spatial structures which are not fully captured by the idea that we perceive spatial structure in the environment: in vision, but not in touch, you experience objects as extending into a certain region of space, a region whose boundaries are defined by your own visual limitations, such that this region is experienced as part of a larger space extending beyond what is currently visible. As Louise Richardson notes in this volume, this feature of visual experience is structural in the following sense: it remains in place independently of objects and relations in the environment are perceived, so it is naturally understood as a way in which objects and relations are perceived. Similarly, perceptual experience in general arguably has a temporal structure, not only in that episodes of experience unfold over time but also in the following way: you experience perceived events and temporal relations among them as occurring within a certain period of time; you experience this period as part of a longer stretch of time, stretching beyond what is presently perceptible.