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Full Idea
One striking feature of human thought involves our ability to disengage the focus of thought from that of our perceptual attention. ...To get a fix on what an animal is thinking about, one need only determine the object of its perceptual attention.
Gist of Idea
Perception reveals what animals think, but humans can disengage thought from perception
Source
Tim Bayne (Thought: a very short introduction [2013], Ch.4)
Book Ref
Bayne,Tim: 'Thought: a very short introduction' [OUP 2013], p.56
A Reaction
What happens when an animal closes its eyes, or stirs violently during sleep? I take the hallmark of human thought to be its multi-level character, and this offers nice evidence for that view. Doing philosophy while driving a car is very revealing.
| 17766 | Physicalism correlates brain and mind, explains causation by thought, and makes nature continuous [Bayne] |
| 17767 | The alternative to a language of thought is map-like or diagram-like thought [Bayne] |
| 17768 | Perception reveals what animals think, but humans can disengage thought from perception [Bayne] |
| 17769 | Some people centre space on themselves; others centre space on the earth [Bayne] |
| 17771 | How we evaluate evidence depends on our background beliefs [Bayne] |
| 17770 | Clifford's dictum seems to block our beliefs in morality, politics and philosophy [Bayne] |