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Acting out our sensory experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2002

J. Kevin O'Regan
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale, Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, Université René Descartes, 92774 Boulogne Billancourt, [email protected] http://nivea.psycho.univ-paris5.fr
Alva Noë
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 [email protected] http://www2.ucsc.edu/people/anoe/

Abstract

The most important clarification we bring in our reply to commentators concerns the problem of the “explanatory gap”: that is, the gulf that separates physical processes in the brain from the experienced quality of sensations. By adding two concepts (bodiliness and grabbiness) that were not stressed in the target article, we strengthen our claim and clarify why we think we have solved the explanatory gap problem, – not by dismissing qualia, but, on the contrary, by explaining why sensations have a “feel” and why “feels” feel the way they do. We additionally clarify our views on: internal representations (we claim internal representations cannot explain why sensation has a feel), on behaviorism (we are not behaviorists), on perception and action (we believe there can be perception without action), and on the brain (we believe the brain does do something important in perception).

Type
Author's Response
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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