Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A psychofunctionalist argument against nonconceptualism

  • Published:
Synthese Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper I present a psychofunctionalist argument for conceptualism, the thesis that conscious visual experience is a conceptual state rather than a nonconceptual state. The argument draws on the holistic character of functionalist accounts of mind, together with the “Two Visual Systems Hypothesis” notably defended by Melvyn Goodale and David Milner.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. See for instance Heck (2000, 2007), Laurier (2004), Speaks (2005) and Byrne (2005).

  2. See for instance Cussins (1990), Bermudez (1998), Tye (2006) and Bermudez and Cahen (2011).

  3. See Byrne (2005) and Speaks (2005). To my mind, the crucial point is that many of the central debates regarding nonconceptual content are not settled by assuming any particular view about which entities mental contents are. For instance, even if we follow Stalnaker (1998) by supposing that mental contents in general are sets of possible worlds, many of the debates in question are left unresolved.

  4. Here and throughout I follow the convention of using all caps for terms picking out concepts. So, red is a color while RED is the concept of a color.

  5. The discussion that follows draws on Milner and Goodale (1995/2006), (2008), (2010) and Goodale and Milner (2004).

  6. See for instance Clark (2001), Campbell (2002), Briscoe (2009), and several of the essays in Gangopadhyay et al. (2010).

  7. Milner and Goodale (2010: p. 73) allow that the ventral stream also can give rise to unconscious perceptual states that “potentially could reach phenomenal awareness, e.g., with slightly different stimulus parameters”.

  8. Milner and Goodale (2010: pp. 71–72), emphasis added.

  9. Milner and Goodale (2010: p. 73).

  10. Further empirical evidence for the Two Visual Systems Hypothesis is provided by certain cases of visual illusions. Conscious visual experience in normal human beings is prone to certain illusions that are not reflected in motor behavior, suggesting that such behavior is being guided by a different visual system. See Milner and Goodale (1995/2006: Chapter 6).

  11. Chalmers (1996), Jackson (1982).

  12. Chalmers (1996: Ch. 6).

  13. Lewis (1970) and (1972).

  14. This sort of result holds even if we drop psychofunctionalism for the logically weaker premise that conscious states require, as a matter of law, being in the right functional state. Suppose we are Chalmers-like dualists about pain and anxiety who hold that, given the laws of our world, subjects can experience pain or anxiety only if they are in states that occupy the functional roles specified by our toy theory. It will then still follow that, as a matter of natural law, a subject must possess a stomach to be capable of pain.

  15. For the attack, see for instance Levin (2009: section 5.1).

  16. See for instance Illich and Walters (1997), Crook and Walters (2011). As Allen (2004) explains, assessing which nonhuman animals are capable of pain is still extremely difficult, and it is controversial whether California sea slugs make the cut. In light of this, the argument in the text can be framed in a less contentious way as follows: It is an open empirical question whether California sea slugs are capable of pain, but functionalism about pain entails that this is not an open question (it entails that they are not), therefore we should reject functionalism about pain.

  17. Lewis (1970).

  18. Crook and Walters (2011).

  19. Similarly-to take up the toy example used in §3—a functionalist can hold that anxiety’s functional role specifies that it causes upset stomachs, and yet still allow that a stomachless being could suffer anxiety (and, in addition, could suffer pain, even given our assumption that pain and anxiety are interdefined), provided that anxiety’s functional role is rich enough that such a being can instantiate a near-realizer of anxiety.

  20. For versions of the argument, see for instance Dretske (1995) and Peacocke (2001). I adopt Laurence and Margolis (2012) term for the argument.

  21. McDowell (1994).

  22. Thanks to an anonymous referee for pressing me to consider such a view.

  23. Versions of the argument are advanced by Evans (1982), Peacocke (1992) and Tye (2006) among others.

  24. Tye (2006).

  25. McDowell (1994: pp. 56–57).

  26. McDowell’s demonstrative concept strategy has received extensive critical discussion. See for instance Heck (2000), Kelly (2001) and Roskies (2010).

  27. See Laurence and Margolis (2012: p. 298).

  28. Brewer (2005) provides an especially clear statement of this sort of argument.

  29. Roskies (2008: p. 634), citing McDowell (1994) and Brewer (1999).

  30. Clark (2001).

  31. Clark (2001: p. 514).

  32. Clark (2001: p. 512), citing Cussins (1990).

  33. Clark (2001: p. 512), appealing to Peacocke (1992).

  34. Bermudez (2007) and Toribio (2008) argue in different ways that the content view and the state view are not independent, contrary to what I (and other philosophers) have supposed. If they are right, perhaps my defense of state conceptualism does after all have implications for what sorts of entities the contents of conscious visual experiences are. I reject their arguments, but assessing them at length falls outside the scope of the present paper.

References

  • Allen, C. (2004). Animal pain. Nous, 38(4), 617–643.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bermudez, J. L. (1998). The paradox of self-consciousness. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bermudez, J. L. (2007). What is at stake in the debate about nonconceptual content? Philosophical Perspectives, 21(1), 55–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bermudez, J. L., & Cahen, A. (2011). Nonconceptual mental content. In E. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

  • Brewer, B. (1999). Perception and reason. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer, B. (2005). Perceptual experience has conceptual content. In M. Steup & E. Sosa (Eds.), Contemporary debates in epistemology. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Briscoe, R. (2009). Egocentric spatial representation in action and perception. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 79(2), 423–460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Byrne, A. (2005). Perception and conceptual content. In M. Steup & E. Sosa (Eds.), Contemporary debates in epistemology (pp. 233–249). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, J. (2002). Reference and consciousness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chalmers, D. (1996). The conscious mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, A. (2001). Visual experience and motor action: Are the bonds too tight? Philosophical Review, 110, 495–519.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crook, R. J., & Walters, E. T. (2011). Nociceptive behavior and physiology of molluscs: Animal welfare implications. ILAR Journal, 52, 185–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cussins, A. (1990). The connectionist construction of concepts. In M. Boden (Ed.), The philosophy of artificial intelligence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dretske, F. (1995). Naturalizing the mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, G. (1982). The varieties of reference. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gangopadhyay, N., Madary, M., & Spicer, F. (2010). Perception, action, and consciousness: Sensorimotor dynamics, and two visual systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Goodale, M., & Milner, D. (2004). Sight unseen. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heck, R. (2000). Nonconceptual content and the ‘Space of Reasons’. Philosophical Review, 109, 483–523.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heck, R. (2007). Are there different kinds of content? In J. Cohen & B. McLaughlin (Eds.), Contemporary debates in the philosophy of mind. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Illich, P. A., & Walters, E. T. (1997). Mechanosensory neurons innervating aplysia siphon encode noxious stimuli and display nociceptive sensitization. The Journal of Neuroscience, 17, 459–469.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, F. (1982). Epiphenomenal qualia. Philosophical Quarterly, 32, 127–136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, S. D. (2001). Demonstrative concepts and experience. Philosophical Review, 110(3), 397–420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laurier, D. (2004). Nonconceptual contents vs. nonconceptual states. Grazer Philosophische Studien, 68, 23–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laurence, S., & Margolis, E. (2012). In E. Margolis, R. Samuels, & S.P. Stich (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Cognitive Science (pp. 291–317). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Levin, J. (2009). “Functionalism”. In E. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

  • Lewis, D. (1970). How to define theoretical terms. Journal of Philosophy, 67, 427–446.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D. (1972). Psychophysical and theoretical identifications. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 50, 249–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McDowell, J. (1994). Mind and world. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milner, D., & Goodale, M. (1995/2006). The visual brain in action (2nd edn). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Milner, D., & Goodale, M. (2008). Two visual systems re-viewed. Neuropsychologia, 46, 774–785.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milner, D., & Goodale, M. (2010). Cortical visual systems for perception and action. In N. Gangopadhyay, M. Madary, & F. Spicer (Eds.).

  • Peacocke, C. (1992a). A study of concepts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peacocke, C. (2001). Does perception have a nonconceptual content? Journal of Philosophy, 98, 239–264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roskies, A. L. (2008). A new argument for nonconceptual content. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 76: 633–659.

  • Roskies, A. (2010). ‘That’ responses doesn’t work: Against a demonstrative defense of conceptualism. Nous, 44, 112–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Speaks, J. (2005). Is there a problem about nonconceptual content? Philosophical Review, 114, 359–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stalnaker, R. (1998). What might nonconceptual content be? In E. Villanueva (Ed.), Concepts. Ridgeview: Atascadero.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toribio, J. (2008). State versus content: The unfair trial of perceptual nonconceptualism. Erkenntnis, 69(3), 351–361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tye, M. (2006). Nonconceptual content, richness, and fineness of grain. In T. G. Szabo & J. Hawthorne (Eds.), Perceptual experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, USA

    Justin Tiehen

Authors
  1. Justin Tiehen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Justin Tiehen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tiehen, J. A psychofunctionalist argument against nonconceptualism. Synthese 191, 3919–3934 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-014-0505-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-014-0505-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation