|
Perception has an objective and a subjective aspect. We perceive events and objects, but at the same time these appear to us in a certain manner. An important role in the determination of 'how objects appear to us' is played by the sensory modalities. Philosophers from Aristotle to Paul Grice have considered the question what precisely distinguishes the senses: What makes hearing into hearing, and seeing into seeing? But also the question of what connects the sensory modalities has strongly attracted the philosophical attention. This is what is at issue in the famous Molyneux Question: What would happen if a blind person, capable of tactile recognition of a sphere or a cube, suddenly gained the capacity of sight? Would he be able to distinguish by looking the sphere from the cube? In the proposed project the two questions regarding what distinguishes and connects the senses will be reconsidered from the combined perspective of the sensorimotor contingency theory for perception and perceptual awareness and of the ideas of Andy Clark about the 'Extended Mind' and his hypothesis that humans are Natural-Born Cyborgs: Creatures which integrate external tools into their behaviour in such a way that these become literally part of themselves. On the basis of the conception of the senses constructed from this perspective, an account will be given of what distinguishes and connects the senses, and it will be investigated how this conception allows for relieving the tension between how objects appear to us, and how they are. The proposed theory of the senses has important implications regarding the debate between internalists and externalists about whether the mind is 'in the head', or extends into the environment.
|