Abstract
It is the purpose of this article to explicate the logical implications of a television analogy for perception, first suggested by John R. Smythies (1956). It aims to show not only that one cannot escape the postulation of qualia that have an evolutionary purpose not accounted for within a strong functionalist theory, but also that it undermines other anti-representationalist arguments as well as some representationalist ones.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Boyle, Robert: 1964, in M. B. Hall (ed.),Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours, facs. edn., Johnson Reprint, New York (originally published: 1664).
Brand, Myles and Robert M. Harnish (eds.): 1986,The Representation of Knowledge and Belief, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Charlesworth, Maurice: 1979, ‘Sense-impressions: A New Model’,Mind 88, 24–44.
Chisholm, Roderick: 1957,Perceiving: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
Churchland, Paul: 1984,Matter and Consciousness, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Cole, David: 1990, ‘Functionalism and Inverted Spectra’,Synthese 82, 207–22.
Crumley II, Jack S.: 1991, ‘Appearances can be Deceiving’,Philosophical Studies 64, 233–51.
Dennett, Daniel C.: 1983, ‘Reflections (on David H. Sanford's ‘Where was I?’)’, in Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennett (eds.),The Mind's Eye: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, pp. 240–41.
Dennett, Daniel C.: 1985,Quining Qualia, Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University.
Dennett, Daniel C.: 1991,Consciousness Explained, Allen Lane, Penguin Press, London.
Dretske, Fred I.: 1986, ‘Aspects of Cognitive Representation’, in Brand and Harnish (1986), pp. 101–15.
Ducasse, Curt J.: 1951,Nature, Mind and Death, (The Carus Lectures, VIII), Open Court, La Salle.
Ducasse, Curt J.: 1965, ‘Minds, Matter and Bodies’, in John R. Smythies (ed.),Brain and Mind: Modern Concepts of the Nature of Mind, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, pp. 81–89.
Fodor, Jerry A.: 1986, ‘Information and Association’, in Brand and Harnish (1986), pp. 80–100.
Gregory, R. L.: 1983, ‘Perception: Psychological Issues’, in Rom Harré and Roger Lamb (eds.),The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Philosophy, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 450–52.
Grice, H. P.: 1967, ‘Meaning’, in P. F. Strawson (ed.),Philosophical Logic, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 39–48.
Hacker, P. M. S.: 1987,Appearance and Reality: A Philosophical Investigation into Perception and Perceptual Qualities, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Hardin, C. L.: 1984, ‘Are “Scientific” Objects Coloured?’,Mind 93, 491–500.
Hardin, C. L.: 1988,Color for Philosophers: Unweaving the Rainbow, Hackett, Indianapolis.
Harding, Gregory: 1991, ‘Color and the Mind-Body Problem’,Review of Metaphysics 45, 289–307.
Harrison, Bernard: 1973,Form and Content, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Helmholtz, Hermann von: 1901,Popular Lectures on Scientific Subjects: First Series, Longmans, Green, London.
Helmholtz, Hermann von: 1977,Epistemological Writings, ed. Robert S. Cohen and Yehuda Elkana, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.
Hirst, R. J.: 1959,The Problems of Perception, Allen and Unwin, London.
Kelley, David: 1987,The Evidence of the Senses, Louisiana University Press, Baton Rouge.
Kripke, Saul: 1980,Naming and Necessity, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Land, E. H.: 1959, ‘Experiments in Color Vision’,Scientific American 200, 184–99.
Land, E. H.: 1964, ‘The Retinex’,Scientific American 208, 50–59.
Land, E. H.: 1977, ‘The Retinex Theory of Color Vision’,Scientific American 237, 108–28.
Lockwood, Michael: 1989,Mind, Brain and the Quantum: The Compound ‘I’, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Mackie, J. L.: 1976,Problems from Locke, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Maund, J. B.: 1993, ‘Respresentation, Pictures and Resemblance’, in Edmond Wright (ed.), 1993.
McCollough, Celeste: 1965a, ‘The Conditioning of Color Perception’,American Journal of Psychology 78, 362–68.
McCollough, Celeste: 1965b, ‘Color Adaptation of Edge-Detectors in the Human Visual System’,Science 149, 1115–16.
Mollon, J. D.: 1986, ‘Colour Vision’, in Rom Harré and Roger Lamb (eds.),The Dictionary of Physiological and Clinical Psychology, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 54–56.
Odegard, Douglas: 1978, ‘Perception’,Dialogue 18, 72–91.
Putnam, Hilary: 1988,Representation and Reality, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Russell, Bertrand: 1927,The Analysis of Matter, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, London.
Schilder, Paul: 1935,The Image and Appearance of the Human Body, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London.
Shoemaker, Sydney: 1982, ‘The Inverted Spectrum’,Journal of Philosophy 79, 357–81.
Shoemaker, Sydney: 1984,Identity, Cause and Mind: Philosophical Essays, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Smythies, John R.: 1953, ‘The Experience and Description of the Human Body’,Brain 76, 132–45.
Smythies, John R.: 1956,Analysis of Perception, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
Smythies, John R.: 1965, ‘The Representative Theory of Perception’, in J. R. Smythies (ed.),Brain and Mind: Modern Concepts of the Nature of Mind. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, pp. 241–57.
Smythies, John R.: 1989,The Geometry of Mind (forthcoming; references to manuscript version).
Sterelny, Kim: 1990,The Representational Theory of Mind: An Introduction, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Stich, Stephen P.: 1983,From Folk Psychology to Cognitive Science: The Case against Belief, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Stratton, George M.: 1896, ‘Some Preliminary Experiments on Vision with Inversion of the Retinal Image’,Psychological Review 3, 611–17.
Stratton, George M.: 1897, ‘Vision with Inversion of the Retinal Image’,Psychological Review 4, 341–60.
Walter, W. Grey: 1950, ‘Features in the Electro-Physiology of Mental Mechanisms’, in D. Richter (ed.),Perspectives in Neuropsychiatry: Essays presented to Professor Lucien Golla, H. K. Lewis, London, pp. 67–78.
Wiggins, David: 1986, ‘On Singling Out an Object Determinately’, in Philip Pettit and John McDowell (eds.),Subject, Thought and Content, Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 169–80.
Wright, Edmond: 1983, ‘Pre-Phenomenal Adjustments and Sanford's Illusion Objection against Sense-Data’,Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 64, 266–72.
Wright, Edmond: 1990a, ‘New Representationalism’,Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 20, 65–92.
Wright, Edmond: 1990b, ‘Two More Proofs of Present Qualia’,Theoria 61, 3–22.
Wright, Edmond: 1992a, ‘The Entity Fallacy in Epistemology’,Philosophy 67, 33–50.
Wright, Edmond: 1992b, ‘Gestalt Switching: Hanson, Aronson and Harré’,Philosophy of Science 59, 480–86.
Wright, Edmond (ed.): 1993,New Representationalisms: Essays in the Philosophy of Perception, Avebury, Aldershot.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
I should like to thank John R. Smythies for his helpful comments and advice. This article was written at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences, in Uppsala, Sweden.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wright, E. More qualia trouble for functionalism: The Smythies TV-hood analogy. Synthese 97, 365–382 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01064074
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01064074