Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-148
Authors: Kohler, Axel
Title: The illusion of the given and its role in vision research : a commentary on Heiko Hecht
Online publication date: 29-Nov-2016
Year of first publication: 2015
Language: english
Abstract: Illusions in vision and other modalities are captivating displays of the virtual nature of our subjective world. For this reason, illusions have been an important subject of scientific and artistic endeavors. In his target article, Heiko Hecht discusses the utility of the illusion concept and arrives at the negative conclusion that the traditional understanding of illusions as a discrepancy between world and perception is misguided. In his opinion, the more interesting and revealing cases are when the discrepancy is noticed and accompanies the perceptual state, or when, in the cognitive domain, the discrepancies become exceedingly large, but go unnoticed nonetheless. In this commentary, I argue that Hecht’s criticism of the illusion concept is interesting and deserves further study. But at the current stage, I don’t see that the model captures the essential features of illusory states. The processes on which Hecht focuses can be considered metacognitive appraisals of the respective sensory events, an interesting topic by itself. In the second part and as an overview, I review how research on the classical apparent-motion illusion has shaped our understanding of the neural underpinnings of motion perception and consciousness in general.
DDC: 100 Philosophie
100 Philosophy
Institution: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Department: FB 05 Philosophie und Philologie
Place: Mainz
ROR: https://ror.org/023b0x485
DOI: http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-148
URN: urn:nbn:de:hebis:77-publ-552981
Version: Published version
Publication type: Buchbeitrag
License: In Copyright
Information on rights of use: https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Citation: Open MIND
Metzinger, Thomas
Pages or article number: Kap. 18(C)
Publisher: MIND Group
Publisher place: Frankfurt am Main
Issue date: 2015
Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.15502/9783958570528
Publisher DOI: 10.15502/9783958570528
Appears in collections:JGU-Publikationen

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