Objective foundations for the study of mental qualities
PsyArXiv Preprints June 15, 2025 DOI: 10.33735/phimisci.2025.11526 via PsyArXiv
Summary
Quality spaces can objectively represent mental qualities by grounding them in perceptual discrimination rather than subjective introspection. Mental qualities have a robust connection to how organisms perceptually discriminate stimuli, allowing quality spaces to be constructed without relying on impressionistic subjective access. Subjective appearances of mental qualities are constitutively tied to perceptual roles, as each appearance consists in how it seems when perceiving a specific object type. Therefore, quality spaces based on perceptual role can also characterize subjective appearances, though the tie to perceptual role is more fundamental. These spaces primarily represent discriminable stimuli objectively, and secondarily represent corresponding mental qualities in terms of both perceptual roles and subjective appearances.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Just noticeable differences Mental qualities Perceptual discriminability Quality spaces What it's like |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key finding | Quality spaces can be constructed objectively from perceptual discrimination, and this perceptual role is more fundamental than subjective appearance for representing mental qualities. |
Abstract
Quality spaces promise to represent mental qualities objectively. That objectivity is compromised, however, if quality spaces are constructed by subjective introspective access, which is impressionistic. But mental qualities also have a robust and objective connection to perceptual discrimination. So quality spaces can be constructed in a fully objective way by appeal to their role in perceiving. In addition, the subjective appearances of mental qualities also bear a constitutive relation to perceptual role, since each subjective appearance consists in its subjectively appearing as it does when one perceives some specific type of object. So quality spaces constructed from perceptual role can also be used to characterize those subjective appearances. And since subjective appearance depends on perceptual role, the tie mental qualities have to perceptual role is more fundamental than that with subjective appearance. Quality spaces are useful in the first instance for objectively representing discriminable stimuli, and derivatively for objectively representing the corresponding mental qualities in respect of both their perceptual roles and their subjective