Externalists Should Be Sense-Datum Theorists

Journal of the American Philosophical Association 8 (2):338-355 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

One increasingly popular view in the philosophy of perception isexternalismabout sensible qualities, according to which sensible qualities such as colors, smells, tastes, and textures are features, not of our minds, but of mind-independent, external objects in the world. The primary motivation for this view is that perceptual experience seems to betransparent—that is, when we attend to sensible qualities, it seems like what we are attending to are features of external objects, not our own minds. Most (if not all) externalists are either naïve realists or externalist representationalists. However, in this article, I argue that those who are moved by the primary motivation for externalism should instead be sense-datum theorists, for externalists’ primary motivation supports the sense-datum theory, not their actually favored views. I argue that externalists should focus on different motivations, get new ones, or become sense-datum theorists.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The common‐sense view of physical objects.Timothy L. S. Sprigge - 1966 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 9 (1-4):339-373.
Sense-data.Paul Coates - 2007 - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The Argument From the Hand.Peter T. Cash - 1979 - Philosophical Investigations 2 (4):47-70.
Phenomenal organization and perceptual mode.Charles M. Myers - 1959 - Philosophy 34 (October):331-337.
Illusions and sense-data.David H. Sanford - 1981 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 6 (1):371-385.
Is a sense-datum language necessary?William P. Alston - 1957 - Philosophy of Science 24 (1):41-45.
The transparency of experience.Michael G. F. Martin - 2002 - Mind and Language 17 (4):376-425.
The Veil of Abstracta.Uriah Kriegel - 2011 - Philosophical Issues 21 (1):245-267.
The Immediate Object of Perception: A Sense-datum.Mika Suojanen - 2017 - Turku: Reports from the Department of Philosophy.
The Immediate Object of Perception: A Sense-datum.Mika Suojanen - 2017 - Turku: Reports from the Department of Philosophy.
Locating projectivism in intentionalism debates.Derek H. Brown - 2010 - Philosophical Studies 148 (1):69-78.

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-05-13

Downloads
46 (#305,111)

6 months
9 (#145,127)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Matt Duncan
Rhode Island College

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Origins of Objectivity.Tyler Burge - 2010 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
Reference and Consciousness.John Campbell - 2002 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
The intrinsic quality of experience.Gilbert Harman - 1990 - Philosophical Perspectives 4:31-52.
Mind and World.Huw Price & John McDowell - 1994 - Philosophical Books 38 (3):169-181.
Naturalizing the Mind.Fred Dretske - 1995 - Philosophy 72 (279):150-154.

View all 28 references / Add more references