Philosophy 290-1

Perceptual experiences are in some sense “of,” “about,” or “directed towards” external states of affairs. For example, a visual experience might be “of” the color and texture of a surface. A central philosophical problem about the nature of conscious experience is to explain what this “intentional character” of experience consists in. This course will both be an overview of the debate about this topic, and a look at some recent developments in the literature discussing this question, including the emergence of new versions of naïve realism, representationalism and adverbialism. Reading will include material from two new books, Perception by Adam Pautz and The Metaphysics of Sensory Experience by David Papineau, and some recent papers. We’ll also have a guest appearance from Zoe Drayson of UC Davis, to present some of her new work in this area.