The Price of Twin Earth

Bibliographic Data

ID4351220
AuthorsBrandon James Ashby (0000-0002-9897-9733, University of Arizona, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume70
Issue281
Pages689-710
Publication date2020-09-17
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Philosophical Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8094 • E-ISSN: 1467-9213
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/pq/pqaa002
OpenAlexW3007393312
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited53

Liberals about perceptual contents claim that perceptual experiences can represent kinds and specific, familiar individuals as such; they also claim that the representation of an individual or kind as such by a perceptual experience will be reflected in the phenomenal character of that experience. Conservatives always deny the latter and sometimes also the former claim. I argue that neither liberals nor conservatives have adequately appreciated how the content internalism/externalism debate bears on their views. I show that perceptual content internalism entails conservativism when conjoined with one other, extremely plausible premise. Hence, liberals are committed to perceptual contents externalism, yet they have failed to fully address the consequences that this has for their view. Moreover, the argument is easily adapted to perceptual experiences of Twin Earthable properties, like colour and shape. I use this last result to show why existing conservative arguments that appeal to Twin Earth plausibly overgeneralize

Appeal · Argument (complex analysis) · Content (measure theory) · Epistemology · Externalism · Internalism and externalism · Perception · Political science · Premise · Representation (politics) · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Law · Mathematics · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Psychology

Tools

Open DOI