PPN seminar Monday 1 November 4-6pm: Jacob Beck

The Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience is delighted to announce that the Philosophy, Psychology and Neuroscience (PPN) seminar will take place on Monday, 1st of November from 4-6pm (BST).

Speaker: Jacob Beck (Philosopher, University of York, Canada), on Mundane Hallucinations and New Wave Relationalism

Abstract

Relationalism is a view in the philosophy of perception that maintains that mind-independent objects, such as tables and trees, are essential constituents of veridical perceptual experiences. The argument from hallucination puts pressure on relationalism by appealing to perfect hallucinations, experiences that are introspectively indistinguishable from veridical perceptual experiences but lack an object. Relationalists traditionally reply by embracing disjunctivism. But disjunctivism has been widely criticized, and a new wave of relationalists have been trying out a different reply: denying that perfect hallucinations are possible. According to these new wave relationalists, what seem to be perfect hallucinations may really be something else, such as illusions, veridical experiences of non-obvious objects, or experiences that are not genuinely possible. In my talk, I will argue that however plausible this reply may be for the hallucinations that philosophers typically conjure, it cannot accommodate mundane hallucinations, such as “hearing” your child cry out from the room down the hall when she is actually sound asleep or “feeling” vibrations on your thigh even when your phone isn’t in your pocket. Perception scientists explain mundane hallucinations as by-products of noise in the perceptual system, and noise-induced hallucinations are resistant to the strategies that new wave relationalists deploy to explain away other hallucinations. Mundane hallucinations thus cause trouble for relationalism by underpinning an especially powerful version of the argument from hallucination.

The session will include a 45-55min presentation, a short break break, and a Q&A with the speaker (Zoom details below).

Join Zoom Meeting: https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/99961932768?pwd=MGwrSVNOZmFMbjA3L0dUREhPVUxVQT09

Meeting ID: 999 6193 2768 Passcode: 538596

SOURCE: https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/cspe/news-and-events/ppn-seminar/