A disjunctive theory of introspection: A reflection on zombies and Anton's syndrome

Philosophical Issues 20 (1):226-265 (2010)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Reflection on skeptical scenarios in the philosophy of perception, made vivid in the arguments from illusion and hallucination, have led to the formulation of theories of the metaphysical and epistemological nature of perceptual experience. In recent times, the locus of the debate concerning the nature of perceptual experience has been the dispute between disjunctivists and common-kind theorists. Disjunctivists have held that there are substantial dissimilarities (either metaphysical or epistemological or both) between veridical perceptual experiences occurring when one perceives and perceptual experiences involved in hallucination. Common-kind theorists have denied this. In this paper, I examine the nature of introspection – a faculty that has often been compared and contrasted to perception. I reflect on cases where introspection goes wrong in ways analogous to that in which our perceptual faculties can go wrong and formulate, what I take to be, an attractive theory of introspection. The cases that I focus on in which things go wrong are the case of zombies and the case of subjects with Anton’s syndrome. (Anton’s syndrome is a condition in which people who are blind claim that they can see.) I suggest that, just as it is possible to be a disjunctivist about perception, it is possible to be a disjunctivist about introspection. I argue that this is a good view of one type of introspection, namely, introspection of states that have phenomenal character, such as perceptual experiences. It has a good account to give of the cases in which such introspection seems to go wrong and it yields a plausible metaphysical and epistemological view of the nature of introspection. However, while I favour a disjunctive view of introspection, I do not favour a disjunctive view of perception. And, I suspect, that many disjunctivists about perception would not wish to condone my disjunctivist theory of introspection. I therefore go on to examine to what extent..

Other Versions

edition Macpherson, Fiona (2010) "A disjunctive theory of introspection". In Nanay, Bence, Perceiving the world, pp. : Oxford University Press (2010)

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 97,377

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Qualia, Introspection, and Transparency.Renee Janelle Smith - 2002 - Dissertation, University of Colorado at Boulder
Against Treating Introspection as Perception-Like.Renee Smith - 2010 - PSYCHE: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Research On Consciousness 16 (1):79-86.
Introspection, Anton's Syndrome, and Human Echolocation.Sean Allen‐Hermanson - 2015 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 96 (3):n/a-n/a.
The phenomenal character of experience.Sydney Shoemaker - 1994 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 54 (2):291-314.

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-06-21

Downloads
191 (#113,858)

6 months
8 (#786,674)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Fiona Macpherson
University of Glasgow

References found in this work

Naming and Necessity: Lectures Given to the Princeton University Philosophy Colloquium.Saul A. Kripke - 1980 - Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Edited by Darragh Byrne & Max Kölbel.
Knowledge and its limits.Timothy Williamson - 2000 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The Varieties of Reference.Gareth Evans - 1982 - Oxford: Oxford University Press. Edited by John Henry McDowell.
What is it like to be a bat?Thomas Nagel - 1974 - Philosophical Review 83 (4):435-50.
The content and epistemology of phenomenal belief.David Chalmers - 2002 - In Aleksandar Jokic & Quentin Smith (eds.), Consciousness: New Philosophical Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 220--72.

View all 48 references / Add more references