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Instructor: Alva Noë
Office: Moses 303A
Telephone: 510 643 8412
Email: noe@socrates.berkeley.edu
Web: socrates.berkeley.edu/~noe
Office Hours: Tuesdays 5 to 6 pm, or by appointment
Graduate Student Instructors
Arpy Khatchirian, arpykhatch@yahoo.com
Beri Marusic, marusic@socrates.berkeley.edu
James Genone, jgenone@uclink.berkeley.edu
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What is perception? What is the nature of perceptual consciousness? How can one fit an account of perceptual experience into a broader account of the nature of the mind and the world? The aim of this seminar is to explore these problems. This is a lecture course designed primarily for upper division undegraduate students who have taken at least one course in philosophy. Students in the cognitive sciences (psychology, neuroscience, computer science/robotics, philosophy) are welcome.
REQUIREMENTS [ top ]
To pass this course, students must complete three problem sets and write a term paper (in lieu of a final exam) on an assigned topic. Problem sets will consist of short and long answer questions on readings. In addition, students are required to attend lectures and also a one hour discussion section directed by a graduate student instructor. Students should plan to spend approximately 12 hours a week on work related to this course.
To receiving a passing grade in this course students must (1) complete all assignments on time [late work will not be accepted unless by prior arrangement with the instructor] and (2) attend discussion section. Grades will be a function of performance on written work as follows: Final paper (25%), Problem Sets (75%).
READINGS [ top ]
There are four required books for this course. Each of these has been ordered at the campus bookstore. They are:
The following book is recommended.
Additional readings will be placed on reserve at the Howison Library.
The final term paper will be due on the last day of class.
SCHEDULE [ top ]
This is a preliminary schedule and is subject to change as we move along.
BLINDNESS (two lectures)
John M. Hull, Touching the Rock.
Oliver Sacks, The mind's eye: what the blind see (New Yorker 28 July 2003.) On reserve.
Gareth Evans, Molyneux's Question (in Noë and Thompson).
Alva Noë, Action in Perception, chapters one and three. Electronic reserve.
WHAT IS A SENSORY MODALITY? (three lectures)
H.P. Grice, Some remarks about the senses (in Noë and Thompson).
Paul Bach-y-Rita, Sensory substitution and qualia (in Noë and Thompson).
J. Kevin O'Regan and Alva Noë, A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness, This article is on reserve.
Recommended readings:
Brian Keeley, Making sense of the senses, Published in the Journal of Philosophy, XCIX, no. 1 (Jan, 2002): 1-24.
Rick Grush, Skill and spatial content,
Paul Bach-y-Rita, Sensory substitution and the human-machine interface,
Ned Block, Tactile sensation versus spatial perception,
Susan Hurley and Alva Noë, Neural plasticity and consciousness: reply to Block,
WHAT IS VISION? (six lectures)
David Marr, Selections from Vision (in Noë and Thompson).
Richard Gregory, Perceptions as hypotheses (in Noë and Thompson).
James J. Gibson, A theory of direct visual perception (in Noë and Thompson).
James J. Gibson, selections from The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. On reserve in Howison.
Jerry A. Fodor and Zenon W. Pylyshyn, How direct is visual perception? (in Noë and Thompson).
John McDowell, The content of perceptual experienceæ (in Noë and Thompson).
D. C. Dennett, Seeing is believing - or is it? (in Noë and Thompson).
Dana H. Ballard, On the function of visual representation (in Noë and Thompson).
Alva Noë, Action in Perception, chapter two. Electronic reserve.
SENSE DATA AND THE ARGUMENT FROM ILLUSION (four lectures)
P. F. Strawson, Perception and its objects (in Noë and Thompson).
G.E.M. Anscombe, The intentionality of perception (in Noë and Thompson).
M. Merleau-Ponty, selections from the Phenomenology of Perception in (in Noë and Thompson).
J. L. Austin, Sense and Sensibilia.
C. Peacocke, Sensation and the content of experience: a distinction (in Noë and Thompson)
Alva Noë, On what we see. On electronic reserve.
THE CAUSAL THEORY OF PERCEPTION (three lectures)
H.P. Grice, The causal theory of perception. This article is on reserve in Howison.
David Lewis, Veridical hallucination and prosthetic vision (in Noë and Thompson).
Alva Noë, Causation and perception: the puzzle unravelled On electronic reserve.
Paul Snowdon, Perception, vision and causation (in Noë and Thompson).
THOUGHT AND EXPERIENCE (four lectures)
Christopher Peacocke, Sensation and the content of experience: a distinction (in Noë and Thompson)
Fred Dretske, Conscious experience (in Noë and Thompson).
John McDowell, excerpts from his Mind and World. On reserve.
Alva Noë, Action in Perception, chapter six. Electronic reserve.
COLOR (four lectures)
C.L. Hardin in Bryne and Hilbert.
P. boghossian and D. Velleman in Byrne and Hilbert.
Evan Thompson, Ways of colouring in Noë and Thompson.
John Campbell, A simple view of color in Byrne and Hilbert.
Justin Broackes, The autonomy of color in Byrne and Hilbert
Alva Noë, Action in Perception, chapter four. Electronic reserve.