Perception and Reality in Kant, Husserl, and McDowell (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)

Description

How does perception give us access to external reality? This book critically engages with John McDowell’s conceptualist answer to this question, by offering a new exploration of his views on perception and reality in relation to those of Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl. In six chapters, the book examines these thinkers’ respective theories of perception, lucidly describing how they fit within their larger philosophical views on mind and reality. It thereby not only reveals the continuity of a tradition that underlies today’s fragmented scholarly landscape, but also yields a new critique of McDowell’s conceptualist theory. In doing so, the book contributes to the ongoing bridging of traditions, by combining analytic philosophy, Kantian philosophy, and phenomenology. Perception and Reality in Kant, Husserl, and McDowell will appeal to scholars and students working in the history of philosophy, phenomenology, Kantian philosophy, and in particular the philosophy of perception. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Sources and Abbreviations Preface Introduction 1 Kant: Sensibility, Perception, Reality On Sensibility Chapter Overview Introduction The Distinction between Sensibility and Understanding A Distinct Faculty of Sensibility Idealism and the Myth of the Given Kant and the Myth of the Given On Descartes, Idealism, and Reality On the Noumenon Kant’s Disjunctivism McDowell on Kant and the Subjective Ideality of Space and Time Concluding Remarks 2 Kant: Concepts, Deduction, Debates The Contents of Intuition and Perception Chapter Overview Introduction General Remarks on Synthesis The Transcendental Deduction, A-Version Section 2 The Transcendental Deduction, A-Version Section 3 The Transcendental Deduction, Remarks on the B-Version The Broader Picture: What Problem Does Kant’s Theory of Perception Address? Kant and Contemporary Debates Empirical or Category Conceptualism? Reasons to Think Intuition and Perception have Non-Conceptual Content The Independency Thesis The Argument from Blind Intuitions and Kant’s Anthropology The Argument from Incongruent Counterparts Concluding Remarks 3 Husserl: Intentionality, Consciousness, Nature Intentionality and Fulfillment Chapter Overview The Intentional Approach to Consciousness On Sensation Contents On Feelings and Dark Longings On Fulfillment and Justified Belief Husserl’s Critique of Kant’s Theory of Knowledge The Space of Consciousness Accessing Consciousness On the Space of Consciousness On Drawing the Line On Descartes, Idealism, and Reality Concluding Remarks 4 Husserl: Perception, Judgment, Habit Sensing, Perceiving, Judging Chapter Overview Introduction Fields of Sensations Simple Apprehension and Perceptual Explication Types of Conceptuality and Objects of Thought Horizons, Habits, and Concepts in Perception Revision: What is Perception? On the Kinesthetic System On Habit Kinesthetic Habit and the Constitution of Spatiality Pre-Conceptual Norms and Habits in the Contents of Perception Conceptual Capacities in Perception Concluding Remarks 5 McDowell: Concepts, Perceptions, Debates McDowell’s Conceptualism Chapter Overview Introduction Conceptual Content Reflections on Concepts in Perception in McDowell, Kant, and Husserl Arguments for Non-Conceptual Content Misinterpretations of McDowell: Psychology, Illusions, and Skillful Coping Concluding Remarks 6 McDowell: Reasons, Nature, Reality Reasons and Nature Chapter Overview The Space of Reasons and the Space of Nature Remarks on Drawing the Line, Bildung, and Animal Consciousness Reflections on the Mental and the Transcendental Reasons and Nature: Kant, Husserl, and McDowell On Reality and Idealism On Descartes, Idealism, and Reality: Kant, Husserl, and McDowell Further Remarks on Accessing Reality in Kant, Husserl, and McDowell Concluding Remarks Index