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Full Idea
If a playing card is held in peripheral vision, we can see the card without being able to identify its colours or its shapes. That's normal sight, not blindsight, so we should be reluctant on those grounds to deny visual experience to blindsight subjects.
Gist of Idea
In peripheral vision we see objects without their details, so blindsight is not that special
Source
Daniel C. Dennett (Consciousness Explained [1991], 11.4)
Book Ref
Dennett,Daniel C.: 'Consciousness Explained' [Penguin 1993], p.338
A Reaction
This is an important point in Dennett's war against the traditional all-or-nothing view of mental events. Nevertheless, blindsight subjects deny all mental experience, while picking up information, and peripheral vision never seems like that.
| 23240 | We can't know by sight or hearing without realising that we are doing so [Fichte] |
| 7372 | In peripheral vision we see objects without their details, so blindsight is not that special [Dennett] |
| 7373 | Blindsight subjects glean very paltry information [Dennett] |
| 2953 | Fish may operate by blindsight [Lockwood] |
| 2415 | In blindsight both qualia and intentionality are missing [Chalmers] |
| 4918 | In blindsight V1 (normal vision) is inactive, but V5 (movement) lights up [Carter,R] |
| 6646 | The brain may have two systems for vision, with only the older one intact in blindsight [Lowe] |