Conscious Experience: A Logical Inquiry

by Anil Gupta

Overview

A distinguished philosopher offers a novel account of experience and reason, and develops our understanding of conscious experience and its relationship to thought: a new reformed empiricism.

The role of experience in cognition is a central and ancient philosophical concern. How, theorists ask, can our private experiences guide us to knowledge of a mind-independent reality? Exploring topics in logic, philosophy of mind, and epistemology, Conscious Experience proposes a new answer to this age-old question, explaining how conscious experience contributes to the rationality and content of empirical beliefs.

According to Anil Gupta, this contribution cannot be determined independently of an agent’s conceptual scheme and prior beliefs, but that doesn’t mean it is entirely mind-dependent. While the rational contribution of an experience is not propositional—it does not, for example, provide direct knowledge of the world—it does authorize certain transitions from prior views to new views. In short, the rational contribution of an experience yields a rule for revising views. Gupta shows that this account provides theoretical freedom: it allows the observer to radically reconceive the world in light of empirical findings. Simultaneously, it grants empirical reason significant power to constrain, forcing particular conceptions of self and world on the rational inquirer. These seemingly contrary virtues are reconciled through novel treatments of presentation, appearances, and ostensive definitions.

Collectively, Gupta’s arguments support an original theory: reformed empiricism. He abandons the idea that experience is a source of knowledge and justification. He also abandons the idea that concepts are derived from experience. But reformed empiricism preserves empiricism’s central insight: experience is the supreme epistemic authority. In the resolution of factual disagreements, experience trumps all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674987784
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	02/11/2019
Pages:	440
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Anil Gupta is Alan Ross Anderson Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Précis xix

1 The Problem of Conscious Experience 1

1A Logical and Naturalist Inquiries 1

1B Skepticism and Russell's Acquaintance Model of Experience 13

2 A Coherence Theory of Perceptual Judgments 33

2A Sellars's Theory of Experience 34

2B Sellars on the Reasonableness of Perceptual Judgments 45

2C Critical Observations I 51

2D Critical Observations II 53

3 Simple Theories of Perceptual Judgments 63

3A Characterization of Simple Theories 63

3B Simple Relational Theories 67

3C Simple Informational Theories 72

3D Simple Intentional Theories 76

3E Problems with the Simple Given 84

4 The Hypothetical Given

4A Rational Transitions 93

4B General Remarks on Logical Interdependence 105

4C On Convergence 109

4D Logical Interdependence and Holism 121

5 Presentation and the Transparency of Experience 126

5A Presentation without Acquaintance 127

5B Moore on the Transparency of Experience 130

5C Mind-Independence and Externality 137

5D Phenomenology and Introspection 143

6 Appearances 155

6A Subjective Identity and Appearances 155

6B Illusions and Hallucinations 166

6C Intentionalist Objections 174

7 The Role of Appearances in Cognition 185

7A The Equivalence Principle 185

7B Connotation and Denotation 197

7C The Skeptical Meditation 201

7D Summary of the Account of Experience 211

8 Experience and Concept 218

8A Historical Introduction 219

8B Ostensive Definition: Denotation 228

8C Ostensive Definition: Connotation, Symbol, Concept 242

8D Conceptual Criticism 252

9 Empirical Transformations 264

9A Ontology, Logical and Proper 265

9B Specks, Images, Clouds 276

9C Conceptions of Color 287

9D A Sketch of the Dialectical Situation 293

10 Empirical Dialectic and Empirical Proofs 299

10A Empirical and Mathematical Dialectic Compared 300

10B Some Features of Empirical Proofs 312

10C Compelling Empirical Proofs 323

11 The General Logic of Empirical Dialectic 333

11A Rationality and Dialectical Power 333

11B Ur-Convergence 341

11C Summary of the Main Features of Empirical Dialectic 344

12 Physicalism from the Logical Point of View 355

12A Kripke's Argument against Mental-Physical Identity 356

12B Types of Physicalism 370

12C Physicalism within the Bounds of Reason 378

References 385

Index 403

Editorial Reviews

Gupta’s book is a philosophical supernova, throwing bright new light on a number of important problems. It proposes a novel answer to the age-old question of how conscious experience contributes to the rationality of empirical beliefs. Vast in scope, breathtakingly original, outstandingly rigorous, and infused with a relentless intelligence, this book will be welcomed by epistemologists, metaphysicians, and philosophers of language, logic, mind, and perception.

Christopher Hill

This is a wonderful book. Anil Gupta offers a brilliant logical reconstruction of empirical reasoning that highlights the interdependence between the contributions of perceptual experience and of the subject’s antecedent world view, and elucidates precisely his novel conceptions of experiential presentation and perceptual appearance. His own original and compelling account is clearly located in relation to important alternative approaches, to the great illumination and benefit of anyone working in the area.

Bill Brewer

A fresh approach to a long-standing issue in epistemology.

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