Previous seminars

Perception without representation: the case of relations

Seminar on Language and Communication <p><em>Wednesday, Feb 3, 11:30 am., </em></p><p><strong>Jérôme Dokic (EHESS & Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris) </strong><br><em>

Abstract

In his famous essay "Thought Without Representation", John Perry highlighted an important phenomenon, i.e. "using an n-place predicate to deal with an n+1 relation". For instance, one can represent two events as being simultaneous without representing the frame of reference relative to which they are simultaneous. Perry gave illustrations of the same phenomenon in the domain of perception, especially by reference to the case of egocentric spatial relations. In this talk, I would like to explore the general possibility of perceiving relations without perceiving at least some of their relata. I shall tackle questions such as the following: Under what conditions is perception of relations possible at all? For instance, is such perception necessarily epistemic? What are the cognitive constraints on perceptually representing relations? Can one perceive an external relation (for instance, a difference in size between two persons) without perceiving the properties that ground the relation (the two persons' sizes)?