Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Forms of consciousness
- 2 Theories of qualia
- 3 Awareness, representation, and experience
- 4 The refutation of dualism
- 5 Visual awareness and visual qualia
- 6 Ouch! The paradox of pain
- 7 Internal weather: The metaphysics of emotional qualia
- 8 Introspection and consciousness
- 9 A summary, two supplements, and a look beyond
- Index
5 - Visual awareness and visual qualia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Forms of consciousness
- 2 Theories of qualia
- 3 Awareness, representation, and experience
- 4 The refutation of dualism
- 5 Visual awareness and visual qualia
- 6 Ouch! The paradox of pain
- 7 Internal weather: The metaphysics of emotional qualia
- 8 Introspection and consciousness
- 9 A summary, two supplements, and a look beyond
- Index
Summary
In this chapter I will be concerned with perceptual consciousness, and with what is going on when objects appear to us perceptually in various ways. I will begin by urging that perception always involves awareness of appearances. Then I will explain awareness of perceptual qualia in terms of awareness of appearances. Since all awareness is essentially representational in character, this will give us a representational theory of perceptual qualia. Having stated the theory, I will go on to spell out some of its metaphysical consequences, and to defend it against two powerful objections, one that is based on Swampman and another that is based on inverted spectra.
I will focus almost entirely on vision, and more particularly, on visual awareness of size and shape. Much that I will say will not generalize to other perceptual domains, but I believe that the more abstract and general claims apply to hearing and the other standard perceptual modalities as well as to vision.
APPEARANCE AND REALITY
When I wish to refer to the view that perception involves awareness of special properties that are distinct from the objective physical properties of external objects, I will speak of the appearance view. The principal motivation for this view comes from perceptual relativity – that is, from the fact that the way objects appear to us depends systematically on such factors as distance, angle of view, and lighting.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Consciousness , pp. 128 - 168Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009