Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Perception

  • Buckner Clarifies his Terminology

    Terminological fluidity is one of the banes of philosophy. What follows is an admirable exercise in terminological fixation by the Worthy Opponent.  My comments are in blue. I have been discussing toothbrushes [mirror images] with David but it’s clear we are being held back by semantics. I am not clear what we respectively mean by…

  • Perception: An Inconsistent Triad

    London Ed writes, I am making great progress on the perception book. I have borrowed your idea of an aporia, which I use to illustrate the central problem of perception: (1) Transparency: This is the surface of my desk. (2) Continuity: When I shut my eyes, the surface of my desk does not cease to exist (3) Discontinuity: When I…

  • Philosophically Salient Senses of ‘See’

    This entry is relevant to my ongoing discussion with Dr. Buckner. It is plain that 'sees' has many senses in English.  Of these many senses, some are philosophically salient.  Of the philosophical salient senses, two are paramount.  Call the one 'existence-entailing.'  (EE) Call the other 'existence-neutral.' (EN)  On the one, 'sees' is a so-called verb…

  • Notes on Idealism, Realism, Frege, and Prichard

    Ed Buckner sent me a pdf the first couple pages of which I reproduce below. Bibliographical data here. Emphases added. My commentary is in blue.  ……………………………………. Twentieth Century Oxford Realism Mark Eli Kalderon and Charles Travis 1 Introduction This is a story of roughly a century of Oxford philosophy told by two outsiders.Neither of us…

  • Could the Visible Surface of a Physical Thing be a Mental Item?

    The Sparring Partner offers the following tetrad for our delectation.  1) I take this to be the visible surface of a desk. 2) It is almost certain that this in fact [is] the visible surface of a desk, but it is possible that it is not (it may be the result of a highly realistic…

  • On Perceptual ‘Taking’

    Ed writes, Something to think about. “I take an X to be a Y”. This can be true when there is no Y. For example, I take a tree root to be a snake. There is a tree root, but no snake. But what about the other way round? I take a mirror image to…

  • A Kantian Aporia?

    This just in: I know you like puzzles in aporetic form, so here you are. 1. My perception involves (though is not necessarily limited to) the immediate awareness of mental phenomena. 2. When I look at the visible surface of this desk, all I am immediately aware of is the visible surface of this desk. 3. The…