Perception, cognition, Imagination

An informal seminar

You are invited to a semester-long informal seminar on Perception, Cognition and

Imagination. It will be held in MS608 A, once in two weeks. It is neither a course nor a
discussion group. It will be conducted with the seriousness of a course. However, nothing
official about this – no registration, no exams and no term papers. This is an experiment in
collective teaching, learning and research. All UG, PG students, irrespective of their
disciplines, are welcome. We are committed to regular participation.

We shall try to explore the recent research on perception in cognitive sciences, biology and
physics. Contemporary art, new media and the politics of race and caste have posed serious
questions about perception. How does philosophy respond to these challenges? We would
try to review and update the classical philosophical discussions on perception in the light of
these developments. We shall be open to all traditions of thought and all styles of inquiry.

Tentative topics: Perception and knowledge, modularity of mind, perceptual content –

conceptual and non-conceptual, the myth of the given, phenomenology and embodiment,
memory, Imagination and temporality, Sound: objects, properties and events, Touch and
untouchability, color: primary/secondary quality, perception and emotion, image and time.

First Meeting: 5th August Monday 3-30pm. @ MS 608A (we shall decide on a
schedule convenient to all)

Readings: Here are some tentative readings. According to the participants’ need and
interest we shall add/delete and prepare a final list.

Tim Crane, What is the problem of perception?

J. J. Gibson The stimulus variables for visual depth perception

John McDowell, Avoiding the Myth of the Given

Fodor, J. (1983). Modularity of Mind

Christopher Peacocke, Does Perception Have a Nonconceptual Content?

M. Merleau-Ponty , The "sensation" as a unit of experience, and other excerpts from

Phenomenology of Perception.

Hegel, Phenomenology of Mind, II. Perception Or Things and their Deceptiveness

D.W Smith, Sensation in Essays on Deleuze.

Arindam Chakrabarti, Against Immaculate Perception: Seven Reasons for Eliminating

Nirvikalpaka Perception from Nyāya.

Stawson. P.F, Imagination and Perception.

Fred Dretske, The Role Of The Percept In Visual Cognition,

Charles Travis, The Face of Perception

“Macpherson, F. (2012) “Cognitive Penetration of Colour Experience,”

Daniel Dennett, "Is Perception the "Leading Edge" of Memory?"

Gary Hatfield, On Natural Geometry and Seeing Distance Directly in Descartes .

.Firestone, C. and Scholl, B. (2014). “Top-down effects on perception where none should be
found: The El Greco fallacy in perception research”

Eberhardt, J., Goff, P., Purdie, V., & Davies, P. . “Seeing black: Race, Crime, and
Visual Processing”

Siegel, S. and Byrne, A. (2017). “Rich or Thin?” In Current Controversies in Philosophy of

Perception,

Block, N. Seeing-as in the light of vision science

Isaac, Aistair M.C.; ‘Prospects of Timbre Physicalism’;

Casey O’Callaghan, Sounds and Events

Roberto Casati and J´erˆome Dokic, Some Varieties of Spatial Hearing

John Kulvicki. Sound stimulants: defending the stable disposition view

Daniel Heller-Roazen, The Inner Touch Archaeology of a Sensation

Ricoeur, Paul. Imagination in Discourse and Action

Jean Luc-Nancy, The Ground of Image.

Sanil.V