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Learning to see
Author(s) -
Millar Boyd
Publication year - 2020
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.12263
Subject(s) - phenomenology (philosophy) , sight , perception , psychology , cognitive psychology , cognitive science , visual perception , perceptual learning , epistemology , philosophy , physics , astronomy
It is often assumed that the empirical literature on sight restoration tells us something important about the relationship between visual and haptic representations of shape. However, I maintain that, immediately after having their sight restored, at least some newly sighted individuals undergo visual experiences that instantiate basic shape phenomenology but which do not present the corresponding shape properties. Consequently, the empirical literature on sight restoration tells us something important about the role that perceptual phenomenology plays in our perceptual awareness of an object's properties—it tells us that the properties presented by perceptual experiences are not “built into” perceptual phenomenology.