Philosophy of Perception

Pre-requisites: BA degree

Course objectives: The aim of this course is to provide students with thorough and systematic understanding of a selection of key philosophical problems and theories concerning the nature of perceptual experience and its relation to thought and cognition in general.

Course description: Perceptual experience puts us into most immediate contact with our environment; the five senses provide us with a wide array of rich information about the world. In addition, experience plays a key role in acquisition, justification, and rational grounding of many of our fundamental concepts and beliefs, as well as in guiding of our conscious actions. However, the world as we come to know it via perceptual experience is in many ways different from what the world is really like, according to its descriptions by the natural sciences. This creates a tension: the fundamental rational and epistemological role of experience is brought into question. A host of difficult and significant philosophical problems ensues. This course is intended as an exploration of some of these problems: how should we explain the relation between experience and judgments/beliefs we make on the basis of experience; what are the entities we are aware of in experience; does experience have representational content; how should a plausible account of experience deal with illusions and hallucinations.

Learning Outcomes: The course participants will closely study contemporary literature and thereby acquire comprehensive insight into main lines of argumentation in the philosophy of perception--one of the most exciting areas of philosophical research in recent decades. Moreover, participation in discussion and writing assignments will start them on the path of independent research into the relevant philosophical topics.