Open AccessReflecting on Language from ‘Sideways-on’: Preparatory and Non-Preparatory Aspects-Seeing
Author(s) -
Reshef AgamSegal
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the journal for the history of analytical philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2159-0303
DOI - 10.4148/jhap.v1i6.1446
Subject(s) - conceptualization , object (grammar) , argument (complex analysis) , epistemology , perception , philosophy , point (geometry) , psychology , linguistics , medicine , geometry , mathematics
Aspect-seeing, I claim, involves reflection on concepts. It involves letting oneself feel how it would be like to conceptualize something with a certain concept, without committing oneself to this conceptualization. I distinguish between two kinds of aspect-perception: 1. Preparatory: allows us to develop, criticize, and shape concepts. It involves bringing a concept to an object for the purpose of examining what would be the best way to conceptualize it. 2. Non-Preparatory: allows us to express the ingraspability of certain experiences. It involves bringing a concept to an object for the purpose of showing—per impossible—what it would take to properly capture one’s experience. I demonstrate the usefulness of the two kinds of aspect perception in making conceptual judgments, and in making moral and aesthetic judgments