KARL JASPERS FORUM

TA112 (Müller)

Commentary 12 (to R10)

ON ALVA NOË

by Richard W Moodey
11 April 2009, posted 18 April 2009

<1>

AN: Many current neurophysiological, psychophysical, and psychological approaches to vision rest on the idea that when we see, the brain produces an internal representation of the world. The activation of this internal representation is assumed to give rise to the experience of seeing. The problem with this kind of approach is that it leaves unexplained how the existence of such a detailed internal representation might produce visual consciousness. An alternative proposal is made here. We propose that seeing is a way of acting.

RWM: This is another example of a false "either-or." I agree that seeing, hearing, smelling, etc. are ways of acting. But I also hold that there is also a passive moment to perception. There is a stimulation of receptors by light (chose your theory of light, by sound waves, by airborne chemicals, etc. These stimuli have their own structured characteristics.

<2>
AN: It is a particular way of exploring the environment. Activity in internal representations does not generate the experience of seeing. The outside world serves as its own, external, representation.

RMW: Either I don't understand the last sentence above, or I disagree with it totally.

<3>
AN: The experience of seeing occurs when the organism masters what we call the governing laws of sensorimotor contingency. The advantage of this approach is that it provides a natural and principled way of accounting for visual consciousness, and for the differences in the perceived quality of sensory experience in the different sensory modalities. Several lines of empirical evidence are brought forward in support of the theory, in particular: evidence from experiments in sensorimotor adaptation, visual "filling in," visual stability despite eye movements, change blindness, sensory substitution, and color perception.

RWM: It sounds like a pretty good theory in terms of what it affirms. I am less impressed with its attempted denials.

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Richard W Moodey
e-mail <MOODEY001 (at) gannon.edu>