Philosophy of Perception in the Psychologist’s Laboratory

Summary

Perception is the primary way humans access the external world, and its nature is explored by both scientists and philosophers. Philosophers ask fundamental questions about whether senses represent the world in comparable ways, how much of the environment can be perceived at once, which aspects are objective or subjective, and what counts as perceptual. While these fields often proceed independently, a new research focus reunites them by putting long-standing philosophical questions to empirical test. This work directly tests philosophical conjectures or thought experiments in the laboratory, such that the experiments would not have proceeded without prior philosophical discussion. The review explores themes from these successful interactions and suggests further philosophical questions amenable to empirical approaches.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Perception is our primary means of accessing the external world. What is the nature of this core mental process? Although this question is at the center of scientific research on perception, it has also long been explored by philosophers, who ask fundamental questions about our capacity to perceive: Do our different senses represent the world in commensurable ways? How much of our environment can we be aware of at one time? Which aspects of perception are ‘objective’, and which ‘subjective’? What properties count as perceptual in the first place? Although these parallel research programs typically proceed independently in contemporary scholarship, previous eras recognized more active collaboration and interaction across philosophical and scientific approaches to perception. Here, we review an emerging research focus that has begun to reunite these approaches, by putting several long-standing philosophical questions to empirical test. Unlike more general sources of philosophical inspiration, the work described here draws a direct line from a prominent philosophical conjecture or thought experiment about perception to a key test of that question in the laboratory—such that the relevant experimental work would not (and even could not) have proceeded as it did without the preceding philosophical discussion. Finally, we explore themes arising from these successful interactions, and point to further philosophical questions that might be amenable to empirical approaches.