Perception, Hallucination, and Illusion

William Fish

Philosophy of Mind

The first single-authored book on disjunctivism about visual experiences
The first book to fully develop and defend disjunctivism
Defends an old but controversial thesis-naïve realism about visual experiences-- the very theory that David Hume once claimed to be "destroyed by the slightest philosophy" (Enquiry 1:9)

Perception, Hallucination, and Illusion

William Fish

Description

The idea of a disjunctive theory of visual experiences first found expression in J.M. Hinton's pioneering 1973 book Experiences. In the first monograph in this exciting area since then, William Fish develops a comprehensive disjunctive theory, incorporating detailed accounts of the three core kinds of visual experience--perception, hallucination, and illusion--and an explanation of how perception and hallucination could be indiscriminable from one another without having anything in common. In the veridical case, Fish contends that the perception of a particular state of affairs involves the subject's being acquainted with that state of affairs, and that it is the subject's standing in this acquaintance relation that makes the experience possess a phenomenal character. Fish argues that when we hallucinate, we are having an experience that, while lacking phenomenal character, is mistakenly supposed by the subject to possess it. Fish then shows how this approach to visual experience is compatible with empirical research into the workings of the brain and concludes by extending this treatment to cover the many different types of illusion that we can be subject to.

Perception, Hallucination, and Illusion

William Fish

Philosophy of Mind

Perception, Hallucination, and Illusion

William Fish

Philosophy of Mind

Author Information

William Fish is Associate Professor in Philosophy at Massey University, New Zealand.

Contributors:

1 Naive Realism: The Theory and Its Motivations
2 Naive Realism: Past and Future
3 Perception
4 Hallucination
5 Phenomenal Character and the Brain
6 Illusion
References
Index

Perception, Hallucination, and Illusion

William Fish

Philosophy of Mind

Reviews and Awards

"In Perception, Hallucination, and Illusion, Fish does an admirable job of summarizing the current state of the debate about Naïve Realism, as well as advancing the dialectic beyond that state. Most importantly, he identifies a promising yet hitherto overlooked motivation for Naïve Realism, one which should bring even Naive Realism's most trenchant critics to admit that the view is worth taking seriously. ... In short, anyone on either side of the debate over Naïve Realism, and those wanting to learn what all the fuss is about, would do well to study Fish's book closely." --Philosophical Books

"[Perception, Hallucination, and Illusion] is a substantial contribution. Fish communicates a clear sense of the philosophical landscape that naïve realists confront, and defends a stimulating proposal about how naïve realists should deal with key parts of this landscape.... the book as a whole is a clear presentation of an intriguing and comprehensive naïve?realist view, a work that harpens our understanding of the debate to which this theory contributes."--Matthew Kennedy, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews