On the Looks of Things

TY - JOUR

T1 - On the Looks of Things

AU - Overgaard, Søren

N1 - Paper id:: DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0114.2010.01367.x

PY - 2010/6

Y1 - 2010/6

N2 - In recent publications, Michael Tye and Alva Noë have claimed that there is a sense in which a tilted plate looks round and another sense in which it looks elliptical. This paper argues that their proposal faces decisive objections. On Tye and Noë's account of ordinary, veridical perception, appearances are in constant conflict. As a characterization of ordinary visual experience, this cannot be correct. I examine various responses to this criticism, and conclude that they all fail. I then argue that Noë's account has the further, unintended and undesirable consequence of promoting a version of the sense-datum theory.

AB - In recent publications, Michael Tye and Alva Noë have claimed that there is a sense in which a tilted plate looks round and another sense in which it looks elliptical. This paper argues that their proposal faces decisive objections. On Tye and Noë's account of ordinary, veridical perception, appearances are in constant conflict. As a characterization of ordinary visual experience, this cannot be correct. I examine various responses to this criticism, and conclude that they all fail. I then argue that Noë's account has the further, unintended and undesirable consequence of promoting a version of the sense-datum theory.

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0279-0750

VL - 91

SP - 260

EP - 284

JO - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly

JF - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly

IS - 2

ER -