The course will look at theories of perception and perceptual experience that have been developed over the last fifty years, such as sense-datum accounts, doxastic theories, causal theories and disjunctive conceptions, and modern representationalist theories

16x1hr lectures; 4x1hr seminars over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus. This is one of the Honours options in Philosophy and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

None

None

The standard assessments for this course are: 

■ Essay (2000 words) - 66%

■ Essay (1000 words) - 33% 

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available: 

■ There are no alternatives to the essay, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.  

This course aims to:

■ Introduce students to contemporary analytic philosophy of perception.

■ Explore the nature of the mental states that occur during perception

■ Review the philosophical theories of perception.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

■ Discuss critically several of the major theories of perception and perceptual experience that have been developed over the last fifty years;

■ Explain different accounts of the nature of the mental states that occur during perceptual processes, and of how perception can lead to knowledge or justified belief;

■ Assess whether these theories provide a suitable account of the epistemology of perception;

■ Critically assess theories about the nature of colour;

■ Evaluate hypotheses concerning the nature of and relation between experiences in different sensory modalities.