Perception, Realism, and the Problem of Reference

by Edited by Athanassios Raftopoulos , Peter Machamer

• ISBN13: 9780521198776
• ISBN10: 0521198771
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-21
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

One of the perennial themes in philosophy is the problem of our access to the world around us; do our perceptual systems bring us into contact with the world as it is or does perception depend upon our individual conceptual frameworks? This volume of new essays examines reference as it relates to perception, action and realism, and the questions which arise if there is no neutral perspective or independent way to know the world. The essays discuss the nature of referring, concentrating on the way perceptual reference links us with the observable world, and go on to examine the implications of theories of perceptual reference for realism and the way in which scientific theories refer and thus connect us with the world. They will be of interest to a wide range of readers in philosophy of psychology, cognitive science and action theory.

Table of Contents

Reference, perception, and realism

Towards an (improved) interdisciplinary investigation of demonstrative reference

Visual demonstratives

Losing grip on the world: from illusion to sense-data

Perceiving the intended model

Individuation, reference, and sortal terms

Action, perception, and reference

Personal and semantic reference

Reference from a behaviorist point of view

Causal-descriptivism and the reference of theoretical terms

Scientific representation, denotation, and explanatory power

Referring to localized cognitive operations in parts of dynamically active brains

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