Aristotle on Perceiving Objects

Anna Marmodoro

Addresses fundamental questions for our philosophical understanding of perception in the context of Aristotle's account and offers explanations of Aristotle's solutions
Identifies Aristotle's metaphysical innovations and the way he used them towards resolving challenges that he was first to recognize for the explanation of perceptual awareness
Discusses Aristotle's theory of perception in a way that makes it possible for non-specialists with an interest in perception to follow the problems Aristotle investigated and the solutions he offered

Aristotle on Perceiving Objects

Anna Marmodoro

Description

How can we explain the structure of perceptual experience? What is it that we perceive? How is it that we perceive objects and not disjoint arrays of properties? By which sense or senses do we perceive objects? Are our five senses sufficient for the perception of objects?

Aristotle investigated these questions by means of the metaphysical modeling of the unity of the perceptual faculty and the unity of experiential content. His account remains fruitful-but also challenging-even for contemporary philosophy.

This book offers a reconstruction of the six metaphysical models Aristotle offered to address these and related questions, focusing on their metaphysical underpinning in his theory of causal powers. By doing so, the book brings out what is especially valuable and even surprising about the topic: the core principles of Aristotle's metaphysics of perception are fundamentally different from those of his metaphysics of substance. Yet, for precisely this reason, his models of perceptual content are unexplored territory. This book breaks new ground in offering an understanding of Aristotle's metaphysics of the content of perceptual experience and of the composition of the perceptual faculty.

Aristotle on Perceiving Objects

Anna Marmodoro

Acknowledgements
Introduction

Chapter 1 - The metaphysical foundations of perception
Introduction
1.1 Aristotle's power ontology
1.2 The nature of causal powers
1.3 Causal powers in actuality
1.4 Relations and relatives
1.5 Causation without glue
1.6 The causal powers model in Physics III 3
Concluding remarks

Chapter 2- Aristotle's causal powers theory of perception
Introduction
2.1 The faculty of perception
2.2 The five senses
2.3 The power(s) to cause perceptual experiences
2.4 Aristotle's causal powers theory of perception
2.5 Alternative interpretations of De Anima III 2
Concluding remarks
Appendix: How do the senses 'take on' perceptible qualities?

Chapter 3 - Aristotle's subtle perceptual realism
Introduction
3.1 Perceptible qualities in second actuality
3.1.1 The single-track powers view
3.1.2 The multi-track & multi-stage powers view
3.2 Objectivity of content and subjectivity of experience
3.2.1 Aristotle's Subtle Perceptual Realism
3.2.2 Aristotle and McDowell
3.3 The role of the medium in perception
Concluding remarks

Chapter 4 - The problem of complex perceptual content
Introduction
4.1 The common sense and the perception of complex perceptual content
4.2 Simultaneous perception
4.3 Incidental perception
4.4 Perception of the common sensibles
4.5 From the perception of the common sensibles to the perception of objects
Concluding remarks
Appendix: Varieties of incidental perception

Chapter 5 - Unity of subject, operation, content, and time
Introduction
5.1 Physical constraints on complex perceptual content
5.2 The unity of subject, of operation and of time
5.3 No duplication of perceptual awareness
5.4 A 'robust' interpretation of the common sense
5.5 A new individuation principle for the common sense
Concluding remarks

Chapter 6 - Mixing the many and partitioning the one
Introduction
6. 1 The Mixed Contents Model
6.2 The Multiple Sensors Model
6.3 The Ratio Model
Concluding remarks

Chapter 7 - One and many perceptual faculties
Introduction
7.1 The Relative Identity Model
7.2 The Substance Model
7.3 The Common Power Model
Concluding remarks
Chapter 8 - Conclusions
Bibliography

Aristotle on Perceiving Objects

Anna Marmodoro

Author Information

Anna Marmodoro is a Fellow in Philosophy of Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford. She specializes in ancient philosophy and contemporary metaphysics, and currently directs a major research project in metaphysics funded by the European Research Council.

Aristotle on Perceiving Objects

Anna Marmodoro

Reviews and Awards

"[H]er treatment of powers in general is excellent, and the work to which she puts them in grounding realism is convincing and illuminating... I found her arguments there to be stimulating-a formidable challenge for future work in the area." --Australasian Journal of Philosophy

"She succeeds in offering an account that is subtle and sophisticated even by the standards of cutting-edge metaphysics and philosophy of mind." --The Times Literary Supplement The Times Literary Supplement

"This is an excellent book on a topic of considerable historical and ongoing philosophical interest. It is well organized and well written, and its central claims and lines of argument are easy to follow. These main claims are frequently highly original, while the problems with competing views are clearly explained. The book reflects a great deal of work and thought by Marmodoro on the topics it treats. It should serve as a touchstone for debates about Aristotle's general theory of causal powers, his perceptual realism, and his views on the unity of the perceptual faculty for many years to come." --Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online

"There is much that is valuable in this book. Marmodoro opens up with great skill and intelligence the world of Aristotle's concerns in these areas, persuasively and illuminatingly presenting them as live issues. She handles comparisons between various competing interpretations of the Aristotelian texts very deftly, and her writing is fluent and vivid." -- Metascience

"The book is thoughtfully organized, written in a clear and lively style, and aimed at an audience that includes both contemporary philosophers and scholars of Aristotle alike. It provides an excellent introduction to many issues that have not gotten the extended and focused discussion they deserve. Very few books are the last word on a topic. But not all do the field a service, as Marmodoro's does, by stimulating further debate." -- Journal of the History of Philosophy

"[Marmodoro's] book is written with unusual verve and formidable ambition. It sets out to solve the most difficult problems in Aristotle's theory of perception, and it promises to do so in the best philosophical spirit, namely by cutting reality 'at its joints' at the most fundamental level, which, according to Marmodoro, is the level of the metaphysics of powers. Accordingly, her argument starts with a metaphysical discussion of Aristotle's conception of powers, causation, and change, and then applies the results to his theory of human perception. The outcome is a highly innovative, at times almost dazzling array of fresh, often controversial, and unfailingly thought-provoking, discussions of a whole plethora of issues in Aristotle's metaphysics and theory of perception." -- Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy

"...this book offers a well detailed and original analysis of the metaphysical foundations of the Aristotelian conception of perception, and the content is very clear and very useful for those who want to examine in depth this important aspect of Aristotelian thought." -- Philosophy in Review

Aristotle on Perceiving Objects

Anna Marmodoro

From Our Blog

Coffee tasting with Aristotle

Imagine a possible world where you are having coffee with '¦ Aristotle! You begin exchanging views on how you like the coffee; you examine its qualities ' it is bitter, hot, aromatic etc. It tastes to you this way or this other way. But how do you make these perceptual judgments? It might seem obvious to say that it is via the senses we are endowed with. Which senses though? How many senses are involved in coffee tasting? And how many senses do we have in all?

Posted on September 16, 2014

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