Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Experience And The Active Mind

  • Published:
Synthese Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper investigates a new species ofskeptical reasoning about visual experience that takesits start from developments in perceptual science(especially recent work on change blindness andinattentional blindness). According to thisskepticism, the impression of visual awareness of theenvironment in full detail and high resolution isillusory. I argue that the new skepticism depends onmisguided assumptions about the character ofperceptual experience, about whether perceptualexperiences are 'internal' states, and about how bestto understand the relationship between a person's oranimal's perceptual capacities and the brain-level orneural processes on which they depend. I propose aconception of perceptual experience as a form ofskillful engagement with the environment on the partof the whole person or animal.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

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

REFERENCES

  • Bach-y-Rita, P., C. C. Collins, F. A. Saunders, B. White, and L. Scadden: 1969, 'Vision Substitution by Tactile Image Projection', Nature 221, 963–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bach-y-Rita, P.: 1996, Sustitucion Sensorielle et Qualia, in J. Proust (ed.) Perception et Intermodalité, Presses Universitaire de France, Paris, pp. 81–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ballard, D. H.: 1991, 'Animate Vision', Artificial Intelligence 48, 57–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ballard, D. H.: 1996, 'On the Function of Visual Representation', in K. Akins (ed.) Perception, Oxford University Press, New York & Oxford, pp. 111–131.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackmore, S. J., G. Brelstaff, K. Nelson, and T. Troscianko: 1995, 'Is the Richness of Our Visual World an Illusion? Transsaccadic Memory for Complex Scenes', Perception 24, 1075–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, R. A.: 1991, 'IntelligenceWithout Reason', Proceedings of the 1991 International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 569–595.

  • Burge, T.: 1979, 'Individualism and theMental', Midwest Studies in Philosophy 4, 73–122.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, A.: 1997, Being There: Putting Brain, Body and World Together Again, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, A. and D. Chalmers: 1998, 'The Extended Mind', Analysis 58(1), 7–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Churchland, P. S., V. S. Ramachandran, and T. J. Sejnowski: 1994, 'A Critique of Pure Vision', in C. Koch and J. L. Davis (eds), Large-Scale Neuronal Theories of the Brain, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Churchland, P. S. and V. S. Ramachandran: 1996, 'Filling in: Why Dennett is Wrong', in K. Akins (ed.), Perception: Vancouver Studies in Cognitive Science, Vol. 2, Oxford University Press, New York & Oxford, pp. 132–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crick, F.: 1996, 'Visual Perception: Rivalry and Consciousness', Nature 379, 485–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crick F. and C. Koch: 1990, 'Towards a Neurobiological Theory of Consciousness', Sem Neurosci 2, 263–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crick, F. and C. Koch: 1995, 'AreWe Aware of Neural Activity in Primary Visual Cortex?', Nature, 121–3.

  • Crick, F. and C. Koch: 1998, 'Consciousness and Neuroscience', Cerebral Cortex 8, 97–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dennett, D. C.: 1991, Consciousness Explained, Little Brown, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dennett, D. C.: 1992, '“Filling-In” Versus Finding Out: A Ubiquitous Confusion in Cognitive Science', in H. L. Pick, Jr., P. van den Broek, and D. C. Knill (eds), Cognition: Conceptual and Methodological Issues, American Psychological Association, Washington D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dennett, D. C.: 1998, 'No Bridge over the Stream of Consciousness', Behavioral and Brain Sciences 21, 753–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, J. A.: 1985, 'Four Frames Suffice: A Provisional Model of Vision and Space', Behavioral and Brain Sciences 8, 265–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gregory, R. L. (1966/1978) Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing, 3rd edn, McGraw-Hill, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grimes, J.: 1996, 'On the Failure to Detect Changes in Scenes across Saccades', in K. Akins (ed.), Perception: Vancouver Studies in Cognitive Science, Vol. 2, Oxford University Press, pp. 89–110.

  • Haugeland, J.: 1995, 'Mind Embodied and Embedded', in J. Haugeland (ed.), Having Thought: Essays in the Metaphysics of Mind, Harvard, Cambridge, MA, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurley, S. L.: 1998, 'Vehicles, Contents, Conceptual Structure, and Externalism', Analysis 58(1), 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurley, S. L.: 1999, Consciousness in Action, Harvard, Cambridge, MA, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Intraub, H.: 1997, 'The Representation of Visual Scenes', Trends in Cognitive Sciences 1(6), 217–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levine, J.: 1983, 'Materialism and Qualia: The Explanatory Gap', Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 64, 354–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marr, D.: 1982, Vision, W.H. Freeman and Sons, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milner, D. A. and M. A. Goodale: 1995, The Visual Brain in Action, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Noë, A. and J. K. O'Regan: 2000,' Perception, Attention and the Grand Illusion', Psyche.

  • Noë, A., L. Pessoa, and E. Thompson: 2000, 'Beyond the Grand Illusion: What Change Blindness Really Teaches Us about Vision', Visual Cognition 7, 93–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Regan, J. K. and A. Noë: 2001, 'A Sensorimotor Account of Vision and Visual Consciousness', Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24 (in press).

  • O'Regan, J. K.: 1992, 'Solving the “Real” Mysteries of Visual Perception: The World as an Outside Memory', Canadian Journal of Psychology 46, 461–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Regan, J. K., R. A. Rensink, and J. J. Clark: 1997, 'Picture Changes During Blinks: Not Seeing Where You Look and Seeing Where You Don't Look', Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 38, S707.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Regan, J. K., R. A. Rensink, and J. J. Clark: 1999, 'Change-Blindness as a Result of “Mudsplashes”', Nature 398, 34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pessoa, L., E. Thompson, and A. Noë: 1998a, 'Finding Out about Filling-In: A Guide to Perceptual Completion for Visual Science and the Philosophy of Perception', Behavioral and Brain Sciences 21(6), 723–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pessoa, L., E. Thompson, and A. Noë: 1998b, 'Filling-In is for Finding Out (Author's Response to Commentary)', Behavioral and Brain Sciences 21(6), 781–802.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poggio, T., V. Torre, and C. Koch: 1985, 'Computational Vision and Regularization Theory', Nature 317, 314–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, H.: 1975a, 'The Meaning of “Meaning”, in Mind, Language and Reality: Collected Papers, Vol. 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, H.: 1975b, 'Philosophy and our Mental Life', in Mind, Language and Reality: Collected Papers, Vol. 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramachandran, V. S.: 1992, 'Blind Spots', Scientific American 266, 86–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ratliff, F. and L. Sirovich: 1978, 'Equivalence Classes of Visual Stimuli', Vision Research 18, 845–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rensink, R. A.: 2000, 'The Dynamic Representation of Scenes', Visual Cognition 7, 17–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rensink, R. A., K. O'Regan, and J. Clark: 1997, 'To See or Not to See: The Need for Attention to Perceive Changes in Scenes', Psychological Science 8(5), 368–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simons, D. J.: 2000, 'Current Approaches to Change Blindness', Visual Cognition 7, 17–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simons, D. J. and Chakris, C. F.: in press, 'Gorillas in Our Midst: Sustained Inattentional Blindness for Dynamic Events', Perception.

  • Simons, D. J. and D. T. Levin: 1997, 'Change Blindness', Trends in Cognitive Sciences 1(7), 261–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simons, D. J. and D. T. Levin: 1998, 'Failure to Detect Changes to People during Real-World Interaction', Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 4(5), 644–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teller, D. Y. and E. N. Pugh, Jr.: 1983, 'Linking Propositions in Color Vision', in J. D. Mollon and L. T. Sharpe (eds), Colour Vision: Physiology and Psychophysics, Academic Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, E., A. Noë, and L. Pessoa: 1999, 'Perceptual Completion: A Case Study in Phenomenology and Cognitive Science', in J. Petitot, J.-M. Roy, B. Pachoud and F. J. Varela (eds), Naturalizing Phenomenology: Issues in Contemporary Phenomenology and Cognitive Science, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trehub, A.: 1991, The Cognitive Brain, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsotos, J. K.: 1987, in S. Shapiro (ed.) Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence, John Wiley, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Varela, F. J., E. Thompson, and E. Rosch: 1991, The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Gulick, R.: 1998, 'Analytical Isomorphism and Marilyn Monroe', Behavioral and Brain Sciences 21(6), 776–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, R.: 1995, Cartesian Psychology and Physical Minds, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittgenstein, L.: 1953/1958, Philosophical Investigations, 3rd edn, Blackwell, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittgenstein, L.: 1958, The Blue and Brown Books, Blackwell, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, U.S.A

    Alva Noë

Authors
  1. Alva Noë
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Noë, A. Experience And The Active Mind. Synthese 129, 41–60 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012695023768

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012695023768

Keywords

Search

Navigation