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Reconsidering Perceptual Content

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

William T. Wojtach
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Abstract

An important class of teleological theories cannot explain the representational content of visual states because they fail to address the relationship between the world, projected retinal stimuli, and perception. A different approach for achieving a naturalized theory of visual content is offered that rejects the traditional internalism/externalism debate in favor of what is termed “empirical externalism.” This position maintains that, while teleological considerations can underwrite a broad understanding of representation, the content of visual representation can only be determined empirically according to accumulated past experience. A corollary is that a longstanding problem concerning the indeterminacy of visual content is dissolved.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 76 , Issue 1 , January 2009 , pp. 22 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I would like to thank Güven Güzeldere, Alexander Rosenberg, Dale Purves, and Fred Dretske for helpful comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript.

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