Seminar Series: Disjunctivism

Seminar Series: Disjunctivism

This term (Autumn 2004) we will focus on disjunctivism. This theory of perception has been around in Britain since Hinton in the 60s, however, most articles have appeared about it in the 1980s and 1990s. Not much notice of disjunctivism was taken in the States, i.e. it was not taken seriously there, until very recently. Indeed, one might date it precisely to a recent edition of Philosophical Studies, (July-September 2004, Volume 120, Issue 1-3). In that edition of the journal there are six interconnected essays on disjunctivism. We will read each of these articles (one per week). In the last three weeks of the term, we will endeavour to get some philosophers working on disjunctivism (for and against if possible) to come and give us papers on the subject.

Meetings will take place on Mondays from 5.30pm until 7.00pm in the Caird Room in the Department of Philosophy.


Programme:


(Please note that the links to the articles may not work if you are not on a network that subscribes to these journals online.)


Monday 18 October 2004
Reading group discussion on:
M.G.F. Martin 'The Limits of Self-Awareness', Philosophical Studies, Vol. 120, July-Septmber 2004, Issue 1-3, pp. 37-89.

Monday 25 October 2004
Reading group discussion on:
Susanna Siegel 'Indiscriminability and the Phenomenal', Philosophical Studies, Vol. 120, July-Septmber 2004, Issue 1-3, pp. 91-112.

Monday 1 November 2004
Reading group discussion on:
Mark Johnston 'The Obscure Object of Hallucination', Philosophical Studies, Vol. 120, July-Septmber 2004, Issue 1-3, pp. 113-183.

Monday 8 November 2004
Reading group discussion on:
David Hilbert  'Hallucination, Sense-Data and Direct Realism', Philosophical Studies, Vol. 120, July-Septmber 2004, Issue 1-3, pp. 185-191.

Monday 15 November 2004
Reading group discussion on:
Mike Thau 'What is Disjunctivism?', Philosophical Studies, Vol. 120, July-Septmber 2004, Issue 1-3, pp. 193- 253.

Monday 22 November 2004
Reading group discussion on:
Robert Schwartz  'To Austin or not to Austin, that's the Disjunction', Philosophical Studies, Vol. 120, July-Septmber 2004, Issue 1-3, pp. 255-263.

Monday 29 November
Visiting Speaker: 2004
Paul Snowdon (University College London) 'Some Remarks on Disjunctivism'

Monday 6 December 2004
Visiting Speaker:
Alan Millar (Stirling) 'What the Disjunctivist is Right About'

Monday 13 December 2004
Visiting Speaker:
Bill Brewer (Warwick) 'Perception and Its Objects'

Background Reading:

Hinton, J. M. (1967) "Visual Experiences", Mind, pp. 217-227.

McDowell, J. (1982) "Criteria Defeasibility and Knowledge", Proceedings of the British Academy, 68, pp. 455-479. (Reprinted in J. Dancy (ed.) Perceptual Knowledge, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.) (Also reprinted in J. McDowell (ed.) Meaning, Knowledge, and Reality, Cambridge MA.: Harvard University Press, 1998.)

Snowdon, P. (1980) "Perception, Vision and Causation", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 81, pp. 175-192. Reprinted in J. Dancy (ed.) Perceptual Knowledge, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Child, W. (1992) "Vision and Experience: The Causal Theory and the Disjunctive Conception", Philosophical Quarterly, 42, pp. 297-316.

Millar, A. (1996) "The Idea of Experience", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 96 pp. 75-90.