Institut Jean Nicod

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Thomas McClelland (University of Manchester)


Vendredi 6 mars 2015 de 11h30 à 13h

Séance organisée conjointement avec le séminaire PaCS.
Institut Nicod, ENS, Pavillon Jardin, 29, rue d'Ulm 75005 Paris. Salle de réunion, RDC.

Thomas McClelland (University of Manchester),
Postdoctoral Research Associate on Tim Bayne's ERC-funded 'Architecture of Consciousness' project.

"Do We Perceptually Experience the High-Level Properties of Visual Scenes?"

Abstract:
Philosophy of perception tends to focus on the perceptual representation of objects, and debates surrounding the high-level content of perceptual experience are no exception to this rule: there is much discussion of whether we can perceive an object as a pine tree but no discussion of whether we can perceive the scene before us as a forest. Drawing on both empirical and phenomenological data, I argue that we perceptually experience high-level properties of visual scenes such as being a forest, being a desert and being a city. There are several standard objections to the claim that we perceptually experience the high-level properties of objects, but I suggest that none of these objections can be applied to scene perception. I conclude that scene perception has an important part to play in debates concerning the content of perceptual experience.


CNRS EHESS ENS ENS