The Double Content of Perception

Author: Dilworth, John¹

Source: Synthese, Volume 146, Number 3, September 2005 , pp. 225-243(19)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

Clearly we can perceive both objects, and various aspects or appearances of those objects. But how should that complexity of perceptual content be explained or analyzed? I argue that perceptual representations normally have a double or two level nested structure of content, so as to adequately incorporate information both about contextual aspects Y(X) of an object X, and about the object X itself. On this double content (DC) view, perceptual processing starts with aspectual data Y prime

) as a higher level of content, which data does not itself provide lower level X-related content, but only an aspectually encoded form of such data. Hence the relevant perceptual data Y prime

) must be ’de-contextualized’ or decoded to arrive at the X-related content X prime

, resulting in a double content structure for perceptual data, that persists in higher-order conscious perceptual content. Some implications and applications of this DC view are also discussed.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1007/s11229-004-6209-3

Affiliations: 1: Department of Philosophy, Western Michigan University, 3004 Moore Hall, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008, U.S.A, Email: dilworth@wmich.edu

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