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How can perceptual experiences explain uncertainty?
Author(s) -
Siegel Susanna
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
mind and language
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1468-0017
pISSN - 0268-1064
DOI - 10.1111/mila.12348
Subject(s) - perception , probabilistic logic , unconscious mind , cognitive psychology , perceptual system , psychology , computer science , cognitive science , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , psychoanalysis
Can perceptual experiences be states of uncertainty? We might expect them to be, if the perceptual processes from which they are generated, and the behaviors they help produce, take account of probabilistic information. Yet, it has long been presumed that perceptual experiences purport to tell us about our environment, without hedging or qualifying. Against this long‐standing view, I argue that perceptual experiences may well occasionally be states of uncertainty, but that they are never probabilistically structured. I criticize a powerful line of reasoning that we should expect perceptual experience to be probabilistic, given their interfaces with unconscious probabilistic information, with behavior responsive to it, and with credences.