Berkeley's Puzzle

What Does Experience Teach Us?

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, History, Criticism, & Surveys, Mind & Body
Cover of the book Berkeley's Puzzle by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam, OUP Oxford
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: John Campbell, Quassim Cassam ISBN: 9780191025556
Publisher: OUP Oxford Publication: August 21, 2014
Imprint: OUP Oxford Language: English
Author: John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
ISBN: 9780191025556
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication: August 21, 2014
Imprint: OUP Oxford
Language: English

Sensory experience seems to be the basis of our knowledge and conception of mind-independent things. The puzzle is to understand how that can be: even if the things we experience (apples, tables, trees, etc), are mind-independent how does our sensory experience of them enable us to conceive of them as mind-independent? George Berkeley thought that sensory experience can only provide us with the conception of mind-dependent things, things which cannot exist when they aren't being perceived. It's easy to dismiss Berkeley's conclusion but harder to see how to avoid it. In this book, John Campbell and Quassim Cassam propose very different solutions to Berkeley's Puzzle. For Campbell, sensory experience can be the basis of our knowledge of mind-independent things because it is a relation, more primitive than thought, between the perceiver and high-level objects and properties in the mind-independent world. Cassam opposes this 'relationalist' solution to the Puzzle and defends a 'representationalist' solution: sensory experience can give us the conception of mind-independent things because it represents its objects as mind-independent, but does so without presupposing concepts of mind-independent things. This book is written in the form of a debate between two rival approaches to understanding the relationship between concepts and sensory experience. Although Berkeley's Puzzle frames the debate, the questions addressed by Campbell and Cassam aren't just of historical interest. They are among the most fundamental questions in philosophy.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Sensory experience seems to be the basis of our knowledge and conception of mind-independent things. The puzzle is to understand how that can be: even if the things we experience (apples, tables, trees, etc), are mind-independent how does our sensory experience of them enable us to conceive of them as mind-independent? George Berkeley thought that sensory experience can only provide us with the conception of mind-dependent things, things which cannot exist when they aren't being perceived. It's easy to dismiss Berkeley's conclusion but harder to see how to avoid it. In this book, John Campbell and Quassim Cassam propose very different solutions to Berkeley's Puzzle. For Campbell, sensory experience can be the basis of our knowledge of mind-independent things because it is a relation, more primitive than thought, between the perceiver and high-level objects and properties in the mind-independent world. Cassam opposes this 'relationalist' solution to the Puzzle and defends a 'representationalist' solution: sensory experience can give us the conception of mind-independent things because it represents its objects as mind-independent, but does so without presupposing concepts of mind-independent things. This book is written in the form of a debate between two rival approaches to understanding the relationship between concepts and sensory experience. Although Berkeley's Puzzle frames the debate, the questions addressed by Campbell and Cassam aren't just of historical interest. They are among the most fundamental questions in philosophy.

More books from OUP Oxford

Cover of the book Design: A Very Short Introduction by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
Cover of the book The Rift in The Lute by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
Cover of the book The Sceptical Optimist by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
Cover of the book Knowing by Perceiving by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
Cover of the book Symmetry and the Monster by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
Cover of the book A Memoir of Jane Austen by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
Cover of the book Oppenheim's International Law: United Nations by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
Cover of the book The Believing Primate by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
Cover of the book Ottonian Queenship by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
Cover of the book Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
Cover of the book The Governance Report 2018 by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
Cover of the book Law and Gender by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
Cover of the book Contours of the World Economy 1-2030 AD by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
Cover of the book Horizontal Agreements and Cartels in EU Competition Law by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
Cover of the book Exposure Assessment in Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology by John Campbell, Quassim Cassam
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy