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Single Idea 7710

[filed under theme 12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 6. Inference in Perception ]

Full Idea

According to one school of thought, perception is simply a mode of belief-acquisition,and there is no reason to suppose that any element of sensation is literally involved in perception.

Gist of Idea

Perception is a mode of belief-acquisition, and does not involve sensation

Source

E.J. Lowe (Locke on Human Understanding [1995], Ch.3)

Book Ref

Lowe,E.J.: 'Locke on Human Understanding' [Routledge 2004], p.35

A Reaction

Blindsight would be an obvious supporting case for this view. I think this point is crucial in understanding what is wrong with Jackson's 'knowledge argument' (involving Mary, see Idea 7377). Sensation gives knowledge, so it can't be knowledge.

Related Ideas

Idea 7377 Mary learns when she sees colour, so her complete physical information had missed something [Jackson]

Idea 4264 Perception (which involves an assessment) is a higher state than sensation [Scruton]

The 21 ideas with the same theme [inference is an essential part of perception]:

1544 Perception must be an internal matter, because we can fail to perceive when we are preoccupied [Diogenes of Apollonia, by Theophrastus]
5220 Particular facts (such as 'is it cooked?') are matters of sense-perception, not deliberation [Aristotle]
12482 Molyneux's Question: could a blind man distinguish cube from sphere, if he regained his sight? [Locke]
13005 Truth arises among sensations from grounding reasons and from regularities [Leibniz]
23454 Appearances have a 'form', which indicates a relational order [Kant]
23231 I immediately know myself, and anything beyond that is an inference [Fichte]
6935 In man the lowest senses of smell and taste elevate themselves to intellectual acts [Feuerbach]
16859 Most perception is one-tenth observation and nine-tenths inference [Mill]
24130 An affirmative belief is present in every basic sense impression [Nietzsche]
18309 The evidence of the senses is falsified by reason [Nietzsche]
7628 Broad rejects the inferential component of the representative theory [Broad, by Maund]
15248 Inference in perception is unconvincingly defended as non-conscious and almost instantaneous [Harré/Madden]
12580 Experiences have no conceptual content [Evans, by Greco]
7643 We have far fewer colour concepts than we have discriminations of colour [Evans]
2465 Maybe explaining the mechanics of perception will explain the concepts involved [Fodor]
12579 Perception has proto-propositions, between immediate experience and concepts [Peacocke]
4109 If perception is much richer than our powers of description, this suggests that it is non-conceptual [Crane]
6362 Sense evidence is not beliefs, because they are about objective properties, not about appearances [Pollock/Cruz]
7710 Perception is a mode of belief-acquisition, and does not involve sensation [Lowe]
7638 One thesis says we are not aware of qualia, but only of objects and their qualities [Maund]
7642 The Myth of the Given claims that thought is rationally supported by non-conceptual experiences [Maund]