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Nonconceptualism and Content Independence

Sebastian Sanhueza Rodriguez

Autor
Sebastian Sanhueza Rodriguez
Revista
Trans/Form/Ação
Edição
44 / 2
Ano
2021
DOI
10.1590/0101-3173.2021.v44n2.22.p325
Páginas
325-340
Idioma
en
2021Sebastian Sanhueza Rodriguez. Nonconceptualism and Content Independence. Trans/Form/Ação, v. 44, n. 2, p. 325-340, 2021.2

State Nonconceptualism is the view that perceptual states (not perceptual content) are different in kind from cognitive states (not cognitive content), insofar as a subject could be in perceptual states even if she lacked the concepts necessary to describe those states. Although this position has recently met serious criticism, this piece aims to argue on its behalf. A point I specifically want to highlight is that, thanks to State Nonconceptualism, it is possible to characterize perceptual experiences as nonconceptual or concept-independent without relying on the notion of perceptual content – a feature I term here the content independence of State Nonconceptualism. I think one should welcome this result: for, although a nonconceptualist characterization of perceptual experience is quite plausible, nonrepresentationalist approaches to perception have persuasively challenged the thought that perceptual experiences have representational content. This brief piece is divided into three parts: (i) I introduce two versions of Perceptual Nonconceptualism, namely, Content and State Nonconceptualism; (ii) I go on to stress State Nonconceptualism's content independence; and (iii), I briefly address three prominent objections against the state nonconceptualist.