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Sense Data: the Sensible Approach

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Sense Data: the Sensible Approach Grazer PhilosophischeStudien 62(2001)17-63 SENSE DATA:THE SENSIBLE APPROACH * Manuel GARCÍA-CARPINTERO Universitat de Barcelona Summary Inthis paper,I presenta versionof asense-data approachto perception, whichdiffers to a certain extent fromwell-knownversions like the oneput forwardby Jackson.I comparethe sense-data viewto the currentlymost popularalternative theories ofperception, the so-called Theoryof Ap- pearing(a veryspecific formof disjunctivist approaches)on theonehand andreductive representational ist approacheson the other.I defendthe sense-data approachon the basis that it improvessubstantially onthoseal- ternative theories. 1. The Theory of Appearing Sense data are out of favor these days. Most philosophers currently writing on conscious experience and perception go to great pains to avoid them. In arecent paper onperception Alston writes: “Since sense datum theory has been almost universally abandoned for good and sufficient reason, Ineed not spend time bad mouthing it” (Alston 1999, 189). Only two pages later, however, inresponse to the main argument for sense data, Alston (who purports to defend a *Earlier drafts ofthis paperwere presented at the LOGOSseminar, Universitat deBarcelona,and at OxfordUniversity. I wouldlike to thankthe au- diences there forvery useful suggestions,and in particular Martin Davies,José AntonioDí ez,Dan Ló pez de Sa,Josep Maciàand Manuel Pé rez. V erydetailed comments byKevinMulligan led to manyimprovements, both of style andsub- stance. Financial supportwas providedby the research projects BFF2001-3466, fundedby the DGI,Spanish Government, and SGR2001-001 8,Generalitat de Catalunya. 18 version of the Theory ofAppearing) contends that in hallucination subjects are inexperiential relations with “aparticularly vivid men- tal image,”amental particular.Thus, although Alston dismisses sense data, he isprepared to commit himself to what was tradition- ally supposed tobe the main ontological burden ofthose theories. One then wonders what hetakes tobethe “good and sufficient rea- sons”to dismiss sense data. It is healthy to remember that it has not always been so; for agood half ofthe past century,sense data were taken for granted by most philosophers. For better orfor worse, anew trend was forcefully es- tablished bythe joint efforts of philosophers such as Austin, Ryle, Sellars and Wittgenstein, which has acquired the force of estab- lished presumption. Philosophers take for granted that Austin, Ryle, Sellars and Wittgenstein gave arguments that made it clear that sense data are one more philosophical invention; but they are not very explicit about how exactly the arguments go. There are, of course, some exceptions, outstanding among them Jackson (1977) and Perkins (1983). This paper isan attempt at avindication of sense data against currently fashionable alternative proposals, which de- parts at some points from their views but has been influenced by them. Like other accounts of sensory experience envisaging sense data, the one presented in this paper posits them as part of acausal account of perception. Any correct explication of perception will involve distinctive conscious sensory experiences. Perception isaform of knowledge; perceptual states have arepresentational content, cor- rectness conditions that are as amatter of fact satisfied. There isa systematic, non-accidental relationship such that perceptual states with different intentional contents typically involve sensory experi- ences with different qualia. Wereport the phenomenal character of perceptual experiences involved inperceptual states by resorting to “look”or “appear”talk: “it appears to Sas if abright red solid sphere of radius of about one foot hovers at about one yard in front of him against anundifferentiated gray background”. Asthis example reminds us, sensory experiences are quite com- plex. Itis natural toisolate inthem phenomenal features: the appar- ent color, shape and size ofthe sphere, its apparent distance and po - sition with respect to the subject’s body,its apparent solidity,and so 19 on. These phenomenal features will be called henceforth qualia. This term is introduced without presupposing anything very contro- versial. Itis left open here whether or not individual phenomenal features are relational, even when, as with appearances of shapes and colors for instance, they do not seem so at first sight. Qualia might be relational in the sense that the instantiation ofaquale al- ways involves the instantiation of an intentional object; this is so on the view advanced here. Qualia might even be relational in the most straightforward sense that the instantiation of aquale in the sensory experience in acase of perception always consists in the instan- tiation of arelation between the perceiving subject and afeature instantiated inamaterial object. This is the disjunctivist claim char- acterizing one of the views that Iwill be questioning, the Theory of Appearing. These introductory stipulations leave also open whether or not qualia are reductively definable in intentional terms –asan- other view on perception that Iwill becriticizing holds. Qualia can be isolated inour typically complex sensory experi- ences in amethodologically perspicuous way,by taking advantage of an important fact about them. The fact isthat instances of qualia are constitutively related to other qualia, relations ofwhich subjects aware ofthose instances are also consciously aware. Asubject expe- riencing an instance ofaquale will be able to recognize other in- stances of the same quale, and to discriminate them from other qualia. Also, he will typically beable to merely imagine qualia, and thus to be in adifferent conscious relation with them. Asubject will thereby be able to consciously appreciate how anew token feature of which heisaware orwhich he imagines shares some qualia with oth- ers he has experienced, and differs in some other qualia from them. Subjects are also consciously aware of determinables of which qualia as those previously mentioned are determinates, and also of orderings ofthe determinates in each determinable along different dimensions (hue, brightness and saturation for appearances of col- ors, pitch and timbre for appearances of sounds, intensity for most qualities, etc). Qualia thus belong in amulti-dimensional space. Elaborating on previous proposals by Carnap and Goodman, Clark (1993) shows how the presumption that specific qualia can be iso- lated inour complex sensory fields can be scientifically cashed out on that basis. 20 Ihave so far made the relatively uncontroversial claim that per- ception constitutively involves sensory experiences, states consist- ing in the perceptual subject being consciously aware of specific phenomenal qualities. What Iplan to do in the rest of the paper is to defend asense data theory of aparticular sort, by arguing that it has clear advantages over alternative accounts of perceptual experience. Iwill consider two views: disjunctivism, inthe form of the Theory of Appearing (TA), aview that qualified observers consider the stron- gest rival of sense data accounts. 1 Iwill present this view inthe rest of this section. In the second section Iwill present and criticize a functional-cum-physical representationalist approach. The third section ofthe paper will outline the main traits of the sense data the- ory that Itake tobe correct. The fourth and final section contains my criticism of TA. TA(in Jackson’s (1977) terms, the Multiple Relation Theory of Appearing)is already discussed in classic papers by Moore (1918-9), Chisholm (1950), Sellars (1963) and others, and has been given asharp formulation by Langsam (1997). Johnston (1997) and Alston (1999) have recently praised itasthe best account ofpercep- tual experience. The theory embodies aform ofthe disjunctive con- ception of experience incompatible (in contrast with other forms of disjunctivism) with sense data accounts. The main claim character- izing TAis that “phenomenal features such asredness are relations between material objects and minds”(Langsam 1997, 35). Asubject S experiences aphenomenal feature F if and only if S is in aprimitive relation with amaterial thing; this is the relation consisting of that material thing appearing red to S.Itisthe primitiveness ofthe rela- tion which characterizes TA.As Jackson (1977, 91) emphasizes, sense data theorists do not dispute that when S perceives O to be red, O appears red to S.According to them, however, the fact that amate- rial thing appears F to the perceiving subject is tobeanalyzed in 1.One suchqualified observer,C. D.Broad,wrote: “Howare weto describe [appearance]and to analyzeit? Twodifferent types oftheoryseem to bepossible, whichI will call respectively the Multiple RelationTheory , and the Object The- ory ofsensible appearance”(Broad 1965, 88). The first is Broad’s term forthe theoryof appearing(towards which he, like Mooreat times, was notentirely un- sympathetic, althoughboth he andMoore are classic proponentsof the sense data approach),the secondis his term forthe sense data theory. 21 causal terms involvingsense data. 2 It is therefore of the essence of TA that the relation of amaterial object appearing F to asubject be unanalyzable. This is compatible with considering the appearing-re- lation as explainable (as opposed to analyzable)in scientific terms, even in scientificterms involvingsomething called ‘sensations’. Most defenders of the theory of appearing, as we will see, would support a claim of explainability,as opposed to one of analyzability. 3 The philosophical
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