Thought: A Journal of Philosophy

Volume 10, Issue 3, September 2021

Seeing and attending wholes and parts
A reply to Prettyman

Prettyman argues that global attention to an identity crowded display entails attention to the individual items, and that in virtue of seeing the entire display, a global object, one sees the crowded items. This is a novel objection to Block's use of identity crowding as a counterexample to the necessity of attention for conscious object seeing. However, attending the whole display does not entail attending each individual (pace Prettyman). Thus, any defense of the conclusion that attention is necessary for seeing objects depends on the claim that each individual crowded item is not seen. I argue that Prettyman also fails to show that individual identity crowded items are seen, and that consequently, her argument, as it stands, does not alter the debate.