Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ A New Perceptual Theory of Introspection

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

What is introspection? A way of thinking, certainly. An awareness of oneself. But what sort of thing is it. This paper (18 page PDF) outlines two possibilities: "'psychological perceptualism' is the view that introspective states have the same kind of functional role as perceptual states; 'phenomenological perceptualism' is the view that  introspective states have the same kind of phenomenal character as perceptual states." In other words, introspection is either a type of thinking or it is a type of sensing. Most people would suggest it is the former, but the author suggests, and I agree, that it is rather more like the latter. Specifically, "he introspective attitude (1) shares with the perceptual attitude the feature of representing-as-occurring-now its contents, and (2) resembles the perceptual attitude in representing-as-occurring-in-me its content." Image: Berkeley.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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