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Perception and Cognition

Essays in the Philosophy of Psychology

Gary Hatfield author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:26th Feb '09

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Perception and Cognition cover

How do we see? This question has fascinated and perplexed philosophers and scientists for millennia. In visual perception, mind and world meet, when light reflected from objects enters the eyes and stimulates the nerves leading to activity in the brain near the back of the head. This neural activity yields conscious experiences of a world in three dimensions, clothed in colors, and immediately recognized as (say) ground, sky, grass, trees, and friends. The visual brain also produces nonconscious representations that interact with other brain systems for perception and cognition and that help to regulate our visually guided actions. But how does all of this really work? The answers concern the physiology, psychology, and philosophy of visual perception and cognition. Gary Hatfield's essays address fundamental questions concerning, in Part I, the psychological processes underlying spatial perception and perception of objects; in Part II, psychological theories and metaphysical controversies about color perception and qualia; and, in Part III, the history and philosophy of theories of vision, including methodological controversies surrounding introspection and involving the relations between psychology and the fields of neuroscience and cognitive science. An introductory chapter provides a unified overview; an extensive reference list rounds out the volume.

Laudably, Hatfields work incorporates abundant experimental and theoretical details from scientific psychology. He excels at bringing those details into contact with abstract philosophical questions. Few philosophers attempt such a fine-grained interface with mainstream vision science. * Michael Rescorla, Philosophical Quarterly *
Gary Hatfield's training in experimental psychology, history of science, and philosophy is on full and magnificent display in the sixteen essays collected in this volume. * Lawrence Shapiro, Mind *
Trained both in philosophy and experimental psychology (mainly vision research) Hatfield is equally at home in both disciplines and brings an unusually well-grounded approach to the many foundational issues discussed... Hatfield's coverage of much of the mainstream literature and its historical antecedents is impressive... this book provides a rich and essential source of study. * Max Velmans, Journal of Consciousness Studies *

ISBN: 9780199228218

Dimensions: 234mm x 156mm x 31mm

Weight: 827g

548 pages