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Research Project #1:

Perception by Agents 

A central focus of my research is on how humans and other animals perceive, interact with, and interpret their environments, with an emphasis on visual perception and pain. I am particularly interested in the functions of perceptual systems and the subject-dependence of perceptual experience. I take an interdisciplinary approach to my work, integrating insights from various fields such as neuroscience, psychology, and visual ecology. I also take seriously the problem cases that often get overlooked in the philosophical literature. These include interpersonal and interspecies variation, illusions, and purported instances of top-down modulation of sensory experience. I seek to maximize the explanatory power of my views, build bridges between disciplines, and expound on the idea that minded organisms are embodied agents coupled closely to their environments. 

 I argue that the function of color vision is to help organisms manifest perceptual competences, and that color experiences are correct when they result from competence-enhancing processing. In a similar vein, I argue that the function of pain is to enhance the manifestation of behavioral competences, and that our pain experiences are correct when they are useful. On a more general level, I reject the widely held view that perception is in the business of representing the objective world "as it is."

Published and Forthcoming Papers

1

Seeing with color: Psychophysics and the function of color vision

Synthese 202, 20 (2023).

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04226-y

View-only, full-text access:

https://rdcu.be/dgk7j

2

Color and Competence:
A new view of color perception

Viejo, J.M., Sanjuán, M. (eds) Life and Mind. Interdisciplinary Evolution Research, vol 8. Springer, Cham. (2023). 

 

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30304-3_5

View-only, full-text access: 

https://rdcu.be/df3Zl

3

The pain system is not a bodily disturbance detector 

Cuevas-Badallo, A., Martín-Villuendas, M., Gefaell, J. (eds) Life and Mind: Theoretical and Applied Issues in Contemporary Philosophy of Biology and Cognitive Sciences. Springer, Cham (forthcoming)

Papers in Progress

“Perceptual Competences and the Primary/Secondary Quality Distinction”  (in draft) [ABSTRACT]

 "Pain, Color, and Agent-Centered Perception"  (in draft) [ABSTRACT]

"Philosophy of Color: A Novel Typology"  [ABSTRACT] ​

"Chronic Pain and the Phenomenal World"

“Pain and Cognitive Penetration: Insights from Neuroscience”  ​

 

"What Perceptual Agreement Does and Doesn't Show"

 


 

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