Single Idea 7372

[catalogued under 15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 7. Blindsight]

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 Reference

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.