Theories of Perception in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy

Description

Sense perception is one of the classical themes in philosophy. It is traditionally considered a necessary preamble to many important topics, such as the mind-body relationship, consciousness, knowledge, and scepticism. Perception is also a phenomenon which itself raises philosophical questions, such as what is perceptible, what the content of perception is, whether this content is conceptual and how perception is related to epistemic attitudes. While the philosophy of mind and philosophical psychology are the main areas in which perception is dealt with in contemporary philosophy, it is also discussed in the theory of knowledge, cognitive science, philosophical aesthetics and metaphysics. In recent years, the rich tradition of various philosophical theories of perception has been increasingly studied by scholars of the history of philosophy of mind. The aim of this collection is to shed light on the developments in the theories of sense-perception in medieval Arabic and Latin philosophy, their ancient background and traditional and new themes in early modern thought. Particular attention is paid to the philosophically significant parts of the theories. The articles concentrate on the so-called external senses and related themes. Many of the central ideas are discussed, although the collection is also meant to shed light on less studied subjects. Front Matter....Pages I-XI Aristotle’s Theory of Perception and Medieval Aristotelianism....Pages 1-22 Plotinus on Sense Perception....Pages 23-33 The Stoics on Sense Perception....Pages 35-46 Degrees of Abstraction in Avicenna....Pages 47-71 The Ontological Entailments of Averroes’ Understanding of Perception....Pages 73-86 Robert Kilwardby on Sense Perception....Pages 87-100 Perceiving One’s Own Body....Pages 101-116 Pietro d’Abano and the Anatomy of Perception....Pages 117-130 Id Quo Cognoscimus....Pages 131-149 Seeing and Judging: Ockham and Wodeham on Sensory Cognition....Pages 151-169 Horse Sense and Human Sense: The Heterogeneity of Sense Perception in Buridan’s Philosophical Psychology....Pages 171-186 Objects of Sense Perception in Late Medieval Erfurtian Nominalism....Pages 187-202 Renaissance Views of Active Perception....Pages 203-224 Time and Perception in Late Renaissance Aristotelianism....Pages 225-244 Malebranche’s Ontological Problem of the Perception of Bodies....Pages 245-269 Locke on the Intentionality of Sensory Ideas....Pages 271-283 Back Matter....Pages 285-292