The GW Philosophy Department invites you to join us for the 2017 Endowed Thacher Lecture:
Perceptual Consciousness as a Mental Activity
By Susanna Schellenberg
Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University
Friday, April 21
at 4:00 PM
Duques Hall, Room 152
Title:
Perceptual Consciousness as a Mental Activity
Abstract:
I argue that perceptual consciousness is the product of a mental activity. The mental activity in question is the activity of employing perceptual capacities, such as discriminatory, selective capacities. This is a radical view, but I hope to make it plausible. In arguing for this mental activist view, I reject orthodox views on which perceptual consciousness is analyzed in terms of (sensory awareness relations to) peculiar entities—be they phenomenal properties, external mind-independent properties, propositions, sense-data, qualia, or intentional objects.
Bio:
Susanna Schellenberg is a philosopher specializing in epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language. She is best known for her work on perceptual experience, evidence, capacities, mental content, and imagination. She is professor of philosophy at Rutgers University, where she holds a secondary appointment at the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science. In 2016, Schellenberg was awarded the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award of the Humboldt Foundation. Her work has been published in journals such as Noûs, The Journal of Philosophy, Mind, and Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
