Series | Book | Chapter

223626

A representative theory of sensation

Charles Landesman

pp. 49-61

Abstract

I have argued that once we bring the scientific story into the picture, it is implausible to continue to insist on the principle of direct acquaintance implicit in our common sense understanding of seeing. A representational account of perception seems more plausible once we adopt the view that the coming into being of visual perception is a highly mediated causal process, the end result of which is a visual sensation. but there are difficulties in the way of a representative account. One of them emerges as a result of the argument that there is no reason to suppose that sensations embody propositional content. If they do not possess this sort of intrinsic intentionality, how do they come to represent the external world? The second difficulty is founded upon the phenomenon of transparency that Moore emphasized. Visual perception, it appears, goes straight way to its object without any intervening sensation at all. If visual sensations are just a part of a myth of the given, if we have direct access to the external world, then the representative account has no point.

Publication details

Published in:

Landesman Charles (1993) The eye and the mind: reflections on perception and the problem of knowledge. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 49-61

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-3317-5_4

Full citation:

Landesman Charles (1993) A representative theory of sensation, In: The eye and the mind, Dordrecht, Springer, 49–61.