Abstract:
This thesis aims at analyzing the content of perceptual experience with a view to understand whether non-conceptual perceptual content is possible. To do so, the definition and the function of perception are evaluated to discern what perception really amounts to in our daily life. The notion of sensation as non-conceptual mental content is criticized in order to emphasize the role of perception in our experience. Two distinctions regarding concepts are introduced: 1) between the concept of self and the concepts about the objects of perception; 2) between linguistic and nonlinguistic concepts. With these distinctions, how perceptual content cannot be nonconceptual is illustrated. The concept of ‘self’ is put forth as the minimal requirement for perception to occur, without which it is not possible to have perceptual content at all.
