Attention and the New Sceptics

Author: Ford, Jason¹

Source: Journal of Consciousness Studies, Volume 15, Number 3, 2008 , pp. 59-86(28)

Publisher: Imprint Academic

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Abstract:

In response to new research into the phenomena of inattentional blindness and change- blindness, several philosophers and vision researchers have proposed a novel form of scepticism: they contend that we do not have the conscious experience that we think we have. I will show that this claim is not supported by the evidence usually cited in support of it, and I expose what I believe to be the underlying error motivating this position: the belief that consciousness is either focal (what occupies the focus of attention) or non- existent. Once we appreciate the phenomenology of the periphery of attention, we see that we have the resources to place the problematic phenomena in our peripheral

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Dept of Philosophy, University of Minnesota, 1121 University Drive, Duluth, MN 55812-3027, USA, Email: jford@d.umn.edu

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