Ned Block (Silver Professor of Philosophy and Psychology, New York University, USA), Perception is non-conceptual

Ned Block is Silver Professor in the Departments of Philosophy, Psychology and Center for Neural Science at New York University (NYU), NY, USA.

Video:

Abstract

This talk will argue that the reason that perception is fundamentally different from cognition is that perception is non-conceptual whereas cognition is conceptual.  I will review evidence that infants between the ages of 6 and 11 months can see colors but cannot accomplish even the simplest kinds of cognition involving colors.  Children of the same ages can see shapes and also exhibit cognition with shape concepts.  I will argue that the upshot is that color perception of these infants is non-conceptual and that one can extrapolate from this finding to all of perception.