Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T17:05:54.169Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Systems of Visual Identification in Neuroscience: Lessons from Epistemic Logic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Abstract

The following analysis shows how developments in epistemic logic can play a nontrivial role in cognitive neuroscience. We argue that the striking correspondence between two modes of identification, as distinguished in the epistemic context, and two cognitive systems distinguished by neuroscientific investigation of the visual system (the “where” and “what” systems) is not coincidental, and that it can play a clarificatory role at the most fundamental levels of neuroscientific theory.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We would like to thank Bill Bechtel, John Bickle, Daniel Dennett, Jacques Dubucs, Juliet Floyd, Aaron Garrett, Shahid Rahman, and Lucia Vaina for comments on earlier drafts of this paper. We would also like to thank two anonymous referees for very useful suggestions.

References

Bechtel, William, and Mundale, Jennifer (1999), “Multiple Realizability Revisited: Linking Cognitive and Neural States”, Multiple Realizability Revisited: Linking Cognitive and Neural States 66:175207Google Scholar
Bickle, John (2001), “Understanding Neural Complexity: A Role for Reduction”, Understanding Neural Complexity: A Role for Reduction 11:467481Google Scholar
Dretske, Fred (1981), Knowledge and the Flow of Information. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
De Yoe, Edgar, and Essen, David Van (1988), “Concurrent Processing Streams in Monkey Visual Cortex”, Concurrent Processing Streams in Monkey Visual Cortex 11:219–26.Google Scholar
Fodor, Jerry (1983), The Modularity of Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hintikka, Jaakko (1962), Knowledge and Belief. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Hintikka, Jaakko (1972), “Individuation by Acquaintance”, in Pears, David (ed.), Bertrand Russell: Critical Essays. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 5279.Google Scholar
Hintikka, Jaakko ([1969] 1975), “On the Logic of Perception”, in Hintikka, Jaakko, Models for Modalities, Dordrecht: D.Reidel, 151184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, Gordon (1919), “Disturbances of Visual Space Perception”, Disturbances of Visual Space Perception 2:230233.Google Scholar
Kosslyn, Stephen, and Andersen, Richard (1992), Frontiers in Cognitive Neuroscience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Livingstone, Margaret S., and Hubel, David H. (1987), “Psychophysical Evidence for Separate Channels for the Perception of Form, Color, Movement and Depth”, Psychophysical Evidence for Separate Channels for the Perception of Form, Color, Movement and Depth 7:34163468.Google Scholar
Maunsell, John (1987), “Physiological Evidence for Two Visual Subsystems”, in Vaina, Lucia (ed.), Matters of Intelligence; Conceptual Structures in Cognitive Neuroscience. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 5987.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mishkin Mortimer, Leslie Ungeleider, and Macko, Kathleen (1983), “Object Vision and Spatial Vision: Two Cortical Pathways”, Object Vision and Spatial Vision: Two Cortical Pathways 6:414417.Google Scholar
Mountcastle, Vernon (1980), Medical Physiology, 14th ed. St. Louis: C. V. Mosby.Google Scholar
Pears, David (ed.) (1972), Bertrand Russell: Critical Essays. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Sacks, Oliver (1970), The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, New York: Summit Books.Google Scholar
Sayre, Kenneth (1976), Cybernetics and the Philosophy of Mind. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Schneider, Gerald (1969), “Two Visual Systems: Brain Mechanisms for Localization and Discrimination Are Dissociated by Tectal and Cortical Lesions”, Two Visual Systems: Brain Mechanisms for Localization and Discrimination Are Dissociated by Tectal and Cortical Lesions 163:895902.Google Scholar
Shepherd, Gordon (1994), Neurobiology, 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shipp, Stewart, and Zeki, Semir (1989), “The Organization of Connections between Areas V5 and V1 in Macaque Monkey Visual Cortex”, The Organization of Connections between Areas V5 and V1 in Macaque Monkey Visual Cortex 1:309332.Google ScholarPubMed
Shipp, Stewart, and Zeki, Semir (1989), “The Organization of Connections between Areas V5 and V2 in Macaque Monkey Visual Cortex”, The Organization of Connections between Areas V5 and V2 in Macaque Monkey Visual Cortex 1:333354.Google ScholarPubMed
Trevarthen, Colwyn (1968), “Two Mechanisms of Vision in Primates”, Two Mechanisms of Vision in Primates 31:299337.Google ScholarPubMed
Ungeleider, Leslie, and Mishkin, Mortimer (1982), “Two Cortical Visual Systems”, in Ingle, D. J., Goodale, M. A. and Mansfield, R. J. W. (eds.), Analysis of Visual Behavior. Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 549586.Google Scholar
Vaina, Lucia (1990), “‘What’ and ‘Where’ in the Human Visual System: Two Hierarchies of Visual Modules”, ‘What’ and ‘Where’ in the Human Visual System: Two Hierarchies of Visual Modules 83:4991.Google Scholar
Van Essen, David (1985), “Functional Organization of Primate Visual Cortex”, in Jones, E. (ed.), Cerebral Cortex. New York: Plenum Press, 3:259329.Google Scholar
Van Essen, David, and Maunsell, John (1983), “Hierarchical Organization and Functional Streams in the Visual Cortex”, Trends in Neuroscience 6:370375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade, Nicholas, and Swanston, Michael (1991), Visual Perception: An Introduction. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeki, Semir (1993), A Vision of the Brain. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.Google Scholar
Zeki, Semir, and Shipp, Stewart (1988), “The Functional Logic of Cortical Connections”, The Functional Logic of Cortical Connections 335:311317.Google ScholarPubMed