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Reentrant Neural Pathways and the Theory-Ladenness of Perception

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Athanassios Raftopoulos
Athanassios Raftopoulos*
Affiliation:
University of Cyprus
*
†Send requests for reprints to the author, Department of Education, University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 20537, Kallipoleos 75, Nicosia 1678, Cyprus; email: raftop@ucy.ac.cy.
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Abstract

In this paper I argue for the cognitive impenetrability of perception by undermining the argument from reentrant pathways. To do that I will adduce psychological and neuropsychological evidence showing that (a) early vision processing is not affected by our knowledge about specific objects and events, and (b) that the role of the descending pathways is to enable the early-vision processing modules to participate in higher-level visual or cognitive functions. My thesis is that a part of observation, which I will call perception, is bottom-up and theory neutral. As such, perception could play the role of common ground on which a naturalized epistemology can be built and relativism avoided.

Type
Theory-Ladeness and the Neurology of Perception
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 68 , Issue S3: No. 3 Supplement: Proceedings of the 2000 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers Sep., 2001 , 2001 , pp. S187 - S199
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 2001

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