Perceptual Epistemology without Perceptual Atomism

For zoom info, contact Ben Henke (benhenke@wustl.edu)

Abstract: Various aspects of philosophy of perception, particularly epistemology of perception within a representationalist framework, rely on the assumption of perceptual atomism: that perceptual experience is composed of discrete temporal units, which correspond more or less with the specious present. I review recent empirical work purporting to offer support for discrete frames in perception and find that it broadly fails to support the kind of atomism perceptual epistemology seems to rely on. This implies widespread indeterminacy in perceptual contents, and hence presents a challenge to representationalist approaches to perceptual epistemology.