Indiscriminability and experience of change

Ian Phillips*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

It is obvious both that some changes are too small for us to perceive and that we can perceive constant motion. Yet according to Fara, these two facts are in conflict, and one must be rejected. I show that conflict arises only from accepting a 'zoÃtrope conception' of change experience, according to which change experience is analysed in terms of a series of very short-lived sensory atoms, each lacking in dynamic content. On pain of denying the phenomenologically obvious, we must reject the zoÃtrope conception. I offer an alternative account, according to which the dynamic content of our experience at short timescales is metaphysically dependent on the content of experience over longer timescales. Moreover, at short timescales such content is purely determinable.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)808-827
Number of pages20
JournalPhilosophical Quarterly
Volume61
Issue number245
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2011

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Philosophy

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