Philosophy

PPIG: Philosophy, Psychology, and Informatics Group

Speaker: Will Davies (University of Birmingham)

Title: Visual Border Disputes

Abstract: Philosophers and psychologists widely assume that we visually perceive the boundaries of surfaces, viz. edges. Indeed, some have argued that visually representing the outer boundary or demarcating edge of an object, and thereby differentiating that object from its background, is a necessary condition on object seeing (Dretske 1969; Goldman 1977; Siegel 2006). This philosophical thesis has roots in Gestalt theories of figure-ground organisation (FGO), wherein the visual phenomenology of border ownership is key to explaining the perceptual differentiation of figure from ground. Such theories run counter to a long line of boundary-free views of perception, tracing back to Aristotle, through Ockham, Russell, Whitehead, C. D. Broad, William James, and C. S. Peirce. This history has largely been forgotten, and talk of ‘edge perception’ is now cheap. Given the recent spate of philosophical work on visual object representation (Green 2017, 2018; Quilty-Dunn 2017; Block 2018), the time is ripe to reopen this debate. Applying formal developments in boundary-free geometry and topology, I sketch how one might explain FGO phenomena without invoking explicit perceptual representations of edges or borders. Objections to boundary-free approaches in ontology (e.g. by Casati & Varzi 1999) do not obviously carry over to the perceptual case. I evaluate the application to perception on its own (de)merits, drawing some cautionary conclusions.

Further information

We are a group of researchers from diverse backgrounds in the above-mentioned groups (and beyond) who aim to gain an interdisciplinary yet deep understanding of the threads that bind the human mind and the world. In particular, this seminar series focuses on the nature of cognition, metacognition and social cognition. We’ll be tackling questions such as, what does it mean to think? What does it mean to think about thinking? And, what does it mean to think about one’s own thinking versus thinking about the thinking of other people? Please come along!

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Contact details

Tillmann Vierkant

Oct 17 2018 -

PPIG: Philosophy, Psychology, and Informatics Group

2018-10-17: Visual Border Disputes

Room 1.17, Dugald Stewart Building, 3 Charles Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AD