Fall 2020 Colloquium Series - 26 October
Jessie Munton, University of Cambridge:: Perceptual Epistemology without Perceptual Atomism
Monday, October 26th
12:30pm PDT | online
Abstract: Our visual experience appears to unfold seamlessly through time: it does not obviously decompose into separable temporal chunks or atoms. That dynamic aspect of perceptual experience is in apparent tension with two fundamental assumptions in perceptual epistemology: that perception provides information that can, at least in principle, be segmented into units on which a perceiver can update their beliefs, and that perception is epistemically privileged in virtue of its constitutive link with the present moment. In this talk I examine whether that kind of atomism is empirically supported by evidence of discrete “frames” in visual perception, and argue that it is not. In light of this, we need to rethink the epistemic role of visual experience and the relationship between perception and cognition.
Talks are held at the Burnaby Campus in room WMC 3510 from 3:30 - 5:00 p.m., unless otherwise indicated. They are free and open to the public.