Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Gary Hatfield (University of Pennsylvania)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 3.10cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.827kg
ISBN:  

9780199228218

ISBN 10:   0199228213
Pages:   548
Publication Date:   26 February 2009
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

1: Introduction: Philosophy and Science of Visual Perception and Cognition Note on the Concept of Information in Perception Part I. Foundational and Theoretical Issues in Perception and Cognition 2: Representation and Content in Some (Actual) Theories of Perception 3: Representation in Perception and Cognition: Task Analysis, Psychological Functions, and Rule Instantiation 4: Perception as Unconscious Inference 5: Representation and Constraints: The Inverse Problem and the Structure of Visual Space 6: On Perceptual Constancy 7: Getting Objects for Free (or Not): The Philosophy and Psychology of Object Perception Part II. Color Perception and Qualia Introduction 8: Color Perception and Neural Encoding: Does Matameric Matching Entail a Loss of Information? 9: Objectivity and Subjectivity Revisited: Color as a Psychobiological Property 10: Sense-Data and the Mind-Body Problem 11: The Reality of Qualia Part III. History and Philosophy of Perceptual and Cognitive Psychology Introduction 12: The Sensory Core and the Medieval Foundations of Early Modern Perceptual Theory. Postscript (2008) on Ibn al-Haytham's (Alhacen's) Theory of Vision 13: Attention in Early Scientific Psychology 14: Psychology, Philosophy, and Cognitive Science: Reflections on the History and Philosophy of Experimental Psychology 15: What Can the Mind Tell Us About the Brain? Psychology, Neurophysiology, and Constraint 16: Introspective Evidence in Psychology

Reviews

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

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

Author Information

Gary Hatfield has studied visual perception for more than three decades. His works include experimental studies of shape constancy, theoretical papers on perception, and philosophical studies of the fundamental concepts and theories of visual perception and cognition and their history. His work in the history and philosophy of psychology extends from the seventeenth century to current controversies on qualia and perceptual representation. He has published books on Descartes and the Meditations and The Natural and the Normative: Theories of Spatial Perception from Kant to Helmholtz, and he has translated Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics. He is the co-founder of the Visual Studies undergraduate program at the University of Pennsylvania and has co-taught, with psychologists and art historians, courses and seminars on all aspects of visual perception.

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