Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-hvd4g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T11:30:30.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Clearer Vision

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Lawrence A. Shapiro
Lawrence A. Shapiro*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin—Madison
*
†Send reprint requests to the author, Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, 5185 Helen C. White Hall, 600 North Park St., Madison, WI 53706–1475.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Frances Egan argues that the states of computational theories of vision are individuated individualistically and, as far as the theory is concerned, are not intentional. Her argument depends on equating the goals and explanatory strategies of computational psychology with those of its algorithmic level. However, closer inspection of computational psychology reveals that the computational level plays an essential role in explaining visual processes and that explanations at this level are nonindividualistic and intentional. In conclusion, I sketch an account of content in which content does the sort of explanatory work that Egan denies is possible.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , March 1997 , pp. 131 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

For helpful comments and discussion I thank Tom Bontly, Berent Enç, Malcolm Forster, Gary Hatfield, Eric Saidel, Doug Smith, Elliott Sober, Denis Walsh, and two anonymous reviewers for this journal.

References

Bruce, V. (1992), “Perceiving and Recognizing Faces”, in Humphreys, G. (ed.), Understanding Vision. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, pp. 87–103.Google Scholar
Bruce, V. and Burton, M. (1989), “Computer Recognition of Faces”, in Young, A. W. and Ellis, H. D. (ed.), Handbook of Research on Face Processing. Amsterdam: North Holland, pp. 487–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruce, V. and Young, A. (1986), “Understanding Face Recognition”, British Journal of Psychology 76: 305–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, R. (1975), “Functional Analysis”, Journal of Philosophy 72: 741–764.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, M. (1991), “Individualism and Perceptual Content”, Mind 100: 461–484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dretske, F. (1988), Explaining Behavior. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/A Bradford Book.Google Scholar
Egan, F. (1991), “Must Psychology Be Individualistic?”, The Philosophical Review 100: 179–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egan, F. (1992), “Individualism, Computation, and Perceptual Content”, Mind 101:443–459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fodor, J. and Pylyshyn, Z. (1988), “Connectionism and Cognitive Architecture: A Critical Analysis”, Cognition 28: 3–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forster, M. and Saidel, E. (1994), “Connectionism and the Fate of Folk Psychology: A Reply to Ramsey, Stich and Garon”, Philosophical Psychology 7: 437–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hatfield, G. (1991), “Representation in Perception and Cognition: Connectionist Affordances”, in Ramsey, W., Stich, S., and Rumelhart, D. (ed.), Philosophy and Connectionist Theory. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 163–195.Google Scholar
Haugeland, J. (1978), “The Nature and Plausibility of Cognitivism”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1: 215–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinton, G., McClelland, J., and Rumelhart, D. (1986), “Distributed Representations”, in Rumelhart, D. and McClelland, J. (ed.), Parallel Distributed Processing, vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/A Bradford Book, pp. 77–109.Google Scholar
Hummel, J. and Biederman, I. (1992), “Dynamic Binding in a Neural Network for Shape Recognition”, Psychological Review 99: 480–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kosslyn, S. and Hatfield, G. (1984), “Representation Without Symbol Systems”, Social Research 51: 1019–1045.Google Scholar
Marr, D. (1982), Vision. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Company.Google Scholar
Marr, D. and Nishihara, H. (1978), “Representation and Recognition of the Spatial Organisation of Three-Dimensional Shapes”, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B204: 301–328.Google Scholar
Matthews, R. (1988), “Burge on Individualism”, in Grimm, R. and Merrill, D. (ed.), Contents of Thought. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 77–86.Google Scholar
Newell, A. (1980), “Physical Symbol Systems”, Cognitive Science 4: 135–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Page, I. and Brady, M. (1988), “Introduction”, in Page, I. (ed.), Parallel Architectures and Computer Vision. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. xi–xvii.Google Scholar
Palmer, S. (1992), “Modern Theories of Gestalt Perception”, in Humphreys, G. (ed.), Understanding Vision. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, pp. 39–70.Google Scholar
Pylyshyn, Z. (1989), “Computing in Cognitive Science,” in M. Posner (ed.), Foundations of Cognitive Science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/A Bradford Book, pp. 51–91.Google Scholar
Ramsey, W., Stich, S., and Garon, J. (1991), “Connectionism, Eliminativism, and the Future of Folk Psychology”, in Ramsey, W., Stich, S., and Rumelhart, D. (ed.), Philosophy and Connectionist Theory. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 199–228.Google Scholar
Segal, G. (1989), “Seeing What is Not There”, The Philosophical Review 98: 189–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, L. (1993), “Content, Kinds, and Individualism in Marr's Theory of Vision”, The Philosophical Review 102: 489–513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stonham, J. (1986), “Practical Face Recognition and Verification with WISARD”, in Ellis, H., Jeeves, M., Newcombe, F., and Young, A. (ed.), Aspects of Face Processing. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, pp. 426–441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uhr, L. (1987), “Highly Parallel, Hierarchical, Recognition Cone Perceptual Structures”, in Uhr, L. (ed.), Parallel Computer Vision. Orlando: Academic Press, Inc., pp. 249–292.Google Scholar
Wildes, R. (1990), “Computational Vision with Reference to Binocular Stereo Vision”, in Leibovic, K. (ed.), Science of Vision. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, pp. 332–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar