Can we perceive mental states?

In this paper, I defend Non-Inferentialism about mental states, the view that we can perceive some mental states in a direct, non-inferential way. First, I discuss how the question of mental state perception is to be understood in light of recent debates in the philosophy of perception, and reconstr...

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Publicado en:Synthese Vol. 197; no. 5; pp. 2245 - 2270
Autor principal: Neufeld, Eleonore
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature May2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Can we perceive mental states?
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        au: Neufeld, Eleonore
        affil: University of Southern California, School of Philosophy, 3709 Trousdale Parkway, 90089-045, Los Angeles, CA, USA
      su:
        Cognitive science
        Social perception
        Perception (Philosophy)
        Theory of mind
        Sensory perception
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        subj:
          Cognitive science
          Social perception
          Perception (Philosophy)
          Theory of mind
          Sensory perception
      keyword:
        Mental state perception
        Mindreading
        Non-Inferentialism
        Social cognition
        Theory of Mind
      ab: In this paper, I defend Non-Inferentialism about mental states, the view that we can perceive some mental states in a direct, non-inferential way. First, I discuss how the question of mental state perception is to be understood in light of recent debates in the philosophy of perception, and reconstruct Non-Inferentialism in a way that makes the question at hand—whether we can perceive mental states or not—scientifically tractable. Next, I motivate Non-Inferentialism by showing that under the assumption of the widely-accepted Principle of Cognitive Economy, any account that treats mental state perception as an inferential process commits itself to an unrealistically inefficient picture of our cognitive architecture. Drawing on research in cognitive science, I will then show that my Non-Inferentialist view receives direct support by the available empirical evidence. I conclude that there is no psychologically relevant sense in which perception of mental states differs from paradigmatic cases of perception, such as the perception of ordinary objects.
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    language: English
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