Author: Chittaranjan Naik
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN: 1646780132
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 382
Book Description
If you were told that we perceive the world directly without the causal intervention of the physical brain, or that we see the distant stars instantaneously without their light having to reach our sense organs, would the idea sound incredible to you? Farfetched as it may seem, this idea, the author argues, comes from the time-tested contact theory of perception. Upheld by the Indian philosophical tradition for over 2000 years, it unfolds a definitively coherent process of perception, unlike the stimulus-response theory of perception espoused by empirical science which suffers from a host of logical inconsistencies. The contact theory of perception is a paradigm-changing theory and it has the potential to take us to a domain of knowledge beyond science and to cause a radical transformation in the way we look at the universe we live in. Although a serious philosophical work, the language and lucid style of the presentation should appeal to a wide spectrum of people - from academic philosophers to curious aspirants. If philosophy or the philosophical traditions of India interests you, you cannot afford to ignore this book. But be forewarned: it will challenge the deep-rooted ideas that have become integral to your personal consciousness!
Natural Realism and Contact Theory of Perception
Author: Chittaranjan Naik
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN: 1646780132
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 382
Book Description
If you were told that we perceive the world directly without the causal intervention of the physical brain, or that we see the distant stars instantaneously without their light having to reach our sense organs, would the idea sound incredible to you? Farfetched as it may seem, this idea, the author argues, comes from the time-tested contact theory of perception. Upheld by the Indian philosophical tradition for over 2000 years, it unfolds a definitively coherent process of perception, unlike the stimulus-response theory of perception espoused by empirical science which suffers from a host of logical inconsistencies. The contact theory of perception is a paradigm-changing theory and it has the potential to take us to a domain of knowledge beyond science and to cause a radical transformation in the way we look at the universe we live in. Although a serious philosophical work, the language and lucid style of the presentation should appeal to a wide spectrum of people - from academic philosophers to curious aspirants. If philosophy or the philosophical traditions of India interests you, you cannot afford to ignore this book. But be forewarned: it will challenge the deep-rooted ideas that have become integral to your personal consciousness!
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN: 1646780132
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 382
Book Description
If you were told that we perceive the world directly without the causal intervention of the physical brain, or that we see the distant stars instantaneously without their light having to reach our sense organs, would the idea sound incredible to you? Farfetched as it may seem, this idea, the author argues, comes from the time-tested contact theory of perception. Upheld by the Indian philosophical tradition for over 2000 years, it unfolds a definitively coherent process of perception, unlike the stimulus-response theory of perception espoused by empirical science which suffers from a host of logical inconsistencies. The contact theory of perception is a paradigm-changing theory and it has the potential to take us to a domain of knowledge beyond science and to cause a radical transformation in the way we look at the universe we live in. Although a serious philosophical work, the language and lucid style of the presentation should appeal to a wide spectrum of people - from academic philosophers to curious aspirants. If philosophy or the philosophical traditions of India interests you, you cannot afford to ignore this book. But be forewarned: it will challenge the deep-rooted ideas that have become integral to your personal consciousness!
Aquinas's Theory of Perception
Author: Anthony J. Lisska
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191083666
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
Anthony J. Lisska presents a new analysis of Thomas Aquinas's theory of perception. While much work has been undertaken on Aquinas's texts, little has been devoted principally to his theory of perception and less still on a discussion of inner sense. The thesis of intentionality serves as the philosophical backdrop of this analysis while incorporating insights from Brentano and from recent scholarship. The principal thrust is on the importance of inner sense, a much-overlooked area of Aquinas's philosophy of mind, with special reference to the vis cogitativa. Approaching the texts of Aquinas from contemporary analytic philosophy, Lisska suggests a modest 'innate' or 'structured' interpretation for the role of this inner sense faculty. Dorothea Frede suggests that this faculty is an 'embarrassment' for Aquinas; to the contrary, the analysis offered in this book argues that were it not for the vis cogitativa, Aquinas's philosophy of mind would be an embarrassment. By means of this faculty of inner sense, Aquinas offers an account of a direct awareness of individuals of natural kinds—referred to by Aquinas as incidental objects of sense—which comprise the principal ontological categories in Aquinas's metaphysics. By using this awareness of individuals of a natural kind, Aquinas can make better sense out of the process of abstraction using the active intellect (intellectus agens). Were it not for the vis cogitativa, Aquinas would be unable to account for an awareness of the principal ontological category in his metaphysics.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191083666
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
Anthony J. Lisska presents a new analysis of Thomas Aquinas's theory of perception. While much work has been undertaken on Aquinas's texts, little has been devoted principally to his theory of perception and less still on a discussion of inner sense. The thesis of intentionality serves as the philosophical backdrop of this analysis while incorporating insights from Brentano and from recent scholarship. The principal thrust is on the importance of inner sense, a much-overlooked area of Aquinas's philosophy of mind, with special reference to the vis cogitativa. Approaching the texts of Aquinas from contemporary analytic philosophy, Lisska suggests a modest 'innate' or 'structured' interpretation for the role of this inner sense faculty. Dorothea Frede suggests that this faculty is an 'embarrassment' for Aquinas; to the contrary, the analysis offered in this book argues that were it not for the vis cogitativa, Aquinas's philosophy of mind would be an embarrassment. By means of this faculty of inner sense, Aquinas offers an account of a direct awareness of individuals of natural kinds—referred to by Aquinas as incidental objects of sense—which comprise the principal ontological categories in Aquinas's metaphysics. By using this awareness of individuals of a natural kind, Aquinas can make better sense out of the process of abstraction using the active intellect (intellectus agens). Were it not for the vis cogitativa, Aquinas would be unable to account for an awareness of the principal ontological category in his metaphysics.
Seeing Things as They are
Author: John R. Searle
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199385157
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 255
Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive account of the intentionality of perceptual experience. With special emphasis on vision Searle explains how the raw phenomenology of perception sets the content and the conditions of satisfaction of experience. The central question concerns the relation between the subjective conscious perceptual field and the objective perceptual field. Everything in the objective field is either perceived or can be perceived. Nothing in the subjective field is perceived nor can be perceived precisely because the events in the subjective field consist of the perceivings, whether veridical or not, of the events in the objective field. Searle begins by criticizing the classical theories of perception and identifies a single fallacy, what he calls the Bad Argument, as the source of nearly all of the confusions in the history of the philosophy of perception. He next justifies the claim that perceptual experiences have presentational intentionality and shows how this justifies the direct realism of his account. In the central theoretical chapters, he shows how it is possible that the raw phenomenology must necessarily determine certain form of intentionality. Searle introduces, in detail, the distinction between different levels of perception from the basic level to the higher levels and shows the internal relation between the features of the experience and the states of affairs presented by the experience. The account applies not just to language possessing human beings but to infants and conscious animals. He also discusses how the account relates to certain traditional puzzles about spectrum inversion, color and size constancy and the brain-in-the-vat thought experiments. In the final chapters he explains and refutes Disjunctivist theories of perception, explains the role of unconscious perception, and concludes by discussing traditional problems of perception such as skepticism.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199385157
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 255
Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive account of the intentionality of perceptual experience. With special emphasis on vision Searle explains how the raw phenomenology of perception sets the content and the conditions of satisfaction of experience. The central question concerns the relation between the subjective conscious perceptual field and the objective perceptual field. Everything in the objective field is either perceived or can be perceived. Nothing in the subjective field is perceived nor can be perceived precisely because the events in the subjective field consist of the perceivings, whether veridical or not, of the events in the objective field. Searle begins by criticizing the classical theories of perception and identifies a single fallacy, what he calls the Bad Argument, as the source of nearly all of the confusions in the history of the philosophy of perception. He next justifies the claim that perceptual experiences have presentational intentionality and shows how this justifies the direct realism of his account. In the central theoretical chapters, he shows how it is possible that the raw phenomenology must necessarily determine certain form of intentionality. Searle introduces, in detail, the distinction between different levels of perception from the basic level to the higher levels and shows the internal relation between the features of the experience and the states of affairs presented by the experience. The account applies not just to language possessing human beings but to infants and conscious animals. He also discusses how the account relates to certain traditional puzzles about spectrum inversion, color and size constancy and the brain-in-the-vat thought experiments. In the final chapters he explains and refutes Disjunctivist theories of perception, explains the role of unconscious perception, and concludes by discussing traditional problems of perception such as skepticism.
Perception, Realism, and the Problem of Reference
Author: Athanassios Raftopoulos
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521198771
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
The chapters in the book address the problem of reference as it relates to perception and to debates about realism.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521198771
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
The chapters in the book address the problem of reference as it relates to perception and to debates about realism.
On the Existence of the Self
Author: Chittaranjan Naik
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN: 1639976485
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
Today most scientists and philosophers have come to regard the notion of the self as a kind of illusion, as a theoretical construct similar to the notion we have of the center of gravity. There are two reasons for this phenomenon: the first is due to the view propagated by the empirical sciences that all things in the universe, including the presence of consciousness, can be explained solely from physical causes; and the second is due to the philosophical arguments marshaled against substance ontology by David Hume and Emmanuel Kant and the consequent discarding of the idea of self as substance. This book confronts both these views – in two separate parts of the book - and shows them to be untenable. It provides a fresh proof of the self’s existence by demonstrating that the goal-oriented actions of living beings cannot be explained solely through the laws of physics and that these actions point to a unique power possessed by the self,known in Indian philosophy as kriya-shakti. This proof, along with the Direct Perception Theory presented by the author in his ground-breaking first book ‘Natural Realism and Contact Theory of Perception’, effectively dismantles the idea that the physical universe forms a causal closure and open the doors to a domain of knowledge beyond empirical science.
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN: 1639976485
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
Today most scientists and philosophers have come to regard the notion of the self as a kind of illusion, as a theoretical construct similar to the notion we have of the center of gravity. There are two reasons for this phenomenon: the first is due to the view propagated by the empirical sciences that all things in the universe, including the presence of consciousness, can be explained solely from physical causes; and the second is due to the philosophical arguments marshaled against substance ontology by David Hume and Emmanuel Kant and the consequent discarding of the idea of self as substance. This book confronts both these views – in two separate parts of the book - and shows them to be untenable. It provides a fresh proof of the self’s existence by demonstrating that the goal-oriented actions of living beings cannot be explained solely through the laws of physics and that these actions point to a unique power possessed by the self,known in Indian philosophy as kriya-shakti. This proof, along with the Direct Perception Theory presented by the author in his ground-breaking first book ‘Natural Realism and Contact Theory of Perception’, effectively dismantles the idea that the physical universe forms a causal closure and open the doors to a domain of knowledge beyond empirical science.
The Metaphysics of Perception
Author: Paul Coates
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134453159
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 261
Book Description
This book is an important study in the philosophy of the mind; drawing on the work of philosopher Wilfrid Sellars and the theory of critical realism to develop a novel argument for understanding perception and metaphysics.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134453159
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 261
Book Description
This book is an important study in the philosophy of the mind; drawing on the work of philosopher Wilfrid Sellars and the theory of critical realism to develop a novel argument for understanding perception and metaphysics.
Perception, Hallucination, and Illusion
Author: William Fish
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199888736
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 209
Book Description
The idea of a disjunctive theory of visual experiences first found expression in J.M. Hinton's pioneering 1973 book Experiences. In the first monograph in this exciting area since then, William Fish develops a comprehensive disjunctive theory, incorporating detailed accounts of the three core kinds of visual experience--perception, hallucination, and illusion--and an explanation of how perception and hallucination could be indiscriminable from one another without having anything in common. In the veridical case, Fish contends that the perception of a particular state of affairs involves the subject's being acquainted with that state of affairs, and that it is the subject's standing in this acquaintance relation that makes the experience possess a phenomenal character. Fish argues that when we hallucinate, we are having an experience that, while lacking phenomenal character, is mistakenly supposed by the subject to possess it. Fish then shows how this approach to visual experience is compatible with empirical research into the workings of the brain and concludes by extending this treatment to cover the many different types of illusion that we can be subject to.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199888736
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 209
Book Description
The idea of a disjunctive theory of visual experiences first found expression in J.M. Hinton's pioneering 1973 book Experiences. In the first monograph in this exciting area since then, William Fish develops a comprehensive disjunctive theory, incorporating detailed accounts of the three core kinds of visual experience--perception, hallucination, and illusion--and an explanation of how perception and hallucination could be indiscriminable from one another without having anything in common. In the veridical case, Fish contends that the perception of a particular state of affairs involves the subject's being acquainted with that state of affairs, and that it is the subject's standing in this acquaintance relation that makes the experience possess a phenomenal character. Fish argues that when we hallucinate, we are having an experience that, while lacking phenomenal character, is mistakenly supposed by the subject to possess it. Fish then shows how this approach to visual experience is compatible with empirical research into the workings of the brain and concludes by extending this treatment to cover the many different types of illusion that we can be subject to.
Phenomenal Qualities
Author: Paul Coates
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198712715
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 448
Book Description
A team of distinguished philosophers and psychologists explore the nature of phenomenal qualities, the qualities of conscious experiences, and the ways in which they fit in with our understanding of mind and reality. This volume offers an indispensable resource for anyone wishing to understand the nature of conscious experience.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198712715
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 448
Book Description
A team of distinguished philosophers and psychologists explore the nature of phenomenal qualities, the qualities of conscious experiences, and the ways in which they fit in with our understanding of mind and reality. This volume offers an indispensable resource for anyone wishing to understand the nature of conscious experience.
Skepticism and the Veil of Perception
Author: Michael Huemer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742512535
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
In opposition to both skeptics and representationalists, Huemer (philosophy, U. of Colorado, Boulder) presents a theory of perceptual awareness, according to which perception gives us direct awareness of real objects and non-inferential knowledge of the properties of these objects. He responds to the major arguments for skepticism, including the infinite regress argument, the problem of the criterion, the brain in the vat, and the impossibility of verification. c. Book News Inc.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742512535
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
In opposition to both skeptics and representationalists, Huemer (philosophy, U. of Colorado, Boulder) presents a theory of perceptual awareness, according to which perception gives us direct awareness of real objects and non-inferential knowledge of the properties of these objects. He responds to the major arguments for skepticism, including the infinite regress argument, the problem of the criterion, the brain in the vat, and the impossibility of verification. c. Book News Inc.
A Naïve Realist Theory of Colour
Author: Keith Allen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198755368
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 215
Book Description
A Naive Realist Theory of Colour defends the view that colours are mind-independent properties of things in the environment. Keith Allen argues that a naive realist theory of colour best explains how colours appear to perceiving subjects, and that this view is not undermined by our modern scientific understanding of the world.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198755368
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 215
Book Description
A Naive Realist Theory of Colour defends the view that colours are mind-independent properties of things in the environment. Keith Allen argues that a naive realist theory of colour best explains how colours appear to perceiving subjects, and that this view is not undermined by our modern scientific understanding of the world.