Attention & inscrutability: A commentary on John Campbell, Reference and Consciousness for the Pacific APA meeting, pasadena, california, 2004
Philosophical Studies 127 (2):167-193 (2006)
| Abstract | We assemble here in this time and place to discuss the thesis that conscious attention can provide knowledge of reference of perceptual demonstratives. I shall focus my commentary on what this claim means, and on the main argument for it found in the first five chapters of Reference and Consciousness. The middle term of that argument is an account of what attention does: what its job or function is. There is much that is admirable in this account, and I am confident that it will be the foundation, the launching-pad, for much future work on the subject. But in the end I will argue that Campbell’s picture makes the mechanisms of attention too smart: smarter than they are, smarter than they could be. If we come to a more realistic appraisal of the skills and capacities of our sub-personal minions, the “knowledge of reference” which they yield will have to be taken down a notch or two | |||||||||
| Keywords | Attention Classification Knowledge Metaphysics Reference Visual Campbell, John | |||||||||
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Similar books and articlesJohn Campbell (forthcoming). Visual Attention and the Epistemic Role of Attention. In Christopher Mole, Declan Smithies & Wayne Wu (eds.), Attention: Philosophical and Psychological Essays. Oxford University Press.
J. Campbell (2004). Reference as Attention. Philosophical Studies 120 (1-3):265-76.
John Campbell (2006). Does Visual Reference Depend on Sortal Classification? Reply to Clark. Philosophical Studies 127 (2):221-237.
Sean D. Kelly (2004). Reference and Attention: A Difficult Connection. Philosophical Studies 120 (1-3):277-86.
Athanasios Raftopoulos (2009). Reference, Perception, and Attention. Philosophical Studies 144 (3):339 - 360.
J. Campbell (2002). Reference and Consciousness. Oxford University Press.
Mohan P. Matthen (2006). On Visual Experience of Objects: Comments on John Campbell's Reference and Consciousness. Philosophical Studies 127 (2):195-220.
Austen Clark (2006). Attention and Inscrutability: A Commentary on John Campbell, Reference and Consciousness. Philosophical Studies 127:167-193.
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