Perception and the Physical World

Bol Partner

The focus of this book is on conceptual and philosophical issues of perception including the classic notion of unconscious inferences in perception. The book consists of contributions from a group of internationally renowned researchers who spent a year together as distinguised fellows at the German Centre for Advanced Study. How can we conceive of the relation between the available sensory input and our perceptual achievement? Does our perceptual system exploit the sensory input in terms of innately determined knowledge of properties of the physical world? How can we use Bayesian principles to provide key insights into the scope and limits of perception? Perception is at the interface of the mental and the physical. The process of perception cannot be understood as simply providing some kind of picture of the physical world; rather the perceptual system strongly relies on built-in interpretations and exhibits inference-like and constructive-like properties. In Perception and the Physical World an international field of renowned experts in vision research, philosophy and ecological physics focus on foundational and conceptual issues concerning the nature of perception, particularly unconscious inference, and highlight recent advances in the field. Psychologists and students of psychology, philosophy and artificial intelligence at both undergraduate and postgraduate level will find this book an essential resource. The focus of this book is on conceptual and philosophical issues of perception including the classic notion of unconscious inferences in perception. The book consists of contributions from a group of internationally renowned researchers who spent a year together as distinguised fellows at the German Centre for Advanced Study. Each chapter concludes with a lively, informative debate in the form of comments and replies from the contributors of the book. ? Contributors are of prominent international reputation ? Each chapter concludes with comments and replies from the contributors of the book to give informative debate ? The only book available to blend perception and philosophy in this fashion

Bol

First published in 1961, Perception and the Physical World contends that there are insuperable difficulties for the Representative and Phenomenalist theories. Unreflective common sense thinks of sense-perception as a direct grasping of the nature of the physical world. But when we are confronted with facts about sensory illusion, about the physical and physiological causes of perception, and with modern scientific views of the real nature of matter, it is hard to maintain such a ‘Direct Realist’ theory of perception. We tend to substitute a Copy or Representative theory which puts sense-impressions between ourselves and physical reality. Some philosophers overwhelmed by the difficulties of the Copy theory, retreat into Phenomenalism, which identifies the physical world with our sense-impressions. The author re-examines all the traditional objections to a Direct Realist theory and tries to show that they can be overcome. This book will be of interest to students of philosophy.