Variation and change in appearances

Consider sentence (1): The boat looks immense, yet it also looks small. Predications of “is immense” and “is small” applied to the same object appear to be contradictory, but (1) need not be contradictory. When do appearances conflict with each other, and how can this be marked in our judgments abou...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Martin, MGF
Other Authors: Vogt, KM
Format: Book section
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press 2020
_version_ 1826312257580040192
author Martin, MGF
author2 Vogt, KM
author_facet Vogt, KM
Martin, MGF
author_sort Martin, MGF
collection OXFORD
description Consider sentence (1): The boat looks immense, yet it also looks small. Predications of “is immense” and “is small” applied to the same object appear to be contradictory, but (1) need not be contradictory. When do appearances conflict with each other, and how can this be marked in our judgments about appearance? In 1953, G. E. Moore argued that the possible truth of (1) shows that there must be multiple senses of “looks.” Moore’s example prefigures by thirty years a much-cited discussion by Christopher Peacocke about trees and apparent size with which Peacocke illustrates a contrast between sensational and representational properties of experience. This chapter argues that Moore’s argument for different senses of “looks” is unsound, and hence that we need a different explanation of how we mark the contrast between appearances which conflict and those which do not. The essay closes by offering such an account.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T08:26:23Z
format Book section
id oxford-uuid:8cbafee5-ff6a-430e-b8eb-fe02c32db410
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-07T08:26:23Z
publishDate 2020
publisher Oxford University Press
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:8cbafee5-ff6a-430e-b8eb-fe02c32db4102024-02-16T15:45:22ZVariation and change in appearancesBook sectionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_1843uuid:8cbafee5-ff6a-430e-b8eb-fe02c32db410EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordOxford University Press2020Martin, MGFVogt, KMVlasits, JConsider sentence (1): The boat looks immense, yet it also looks small. Predications of “is immense” and “is small” applied to the same object appear to be contradictory, but (1) need not be contradictory. When do appearances conflict with each other, and how can this be marked in our judgments about appearance? In 1953, G. E. Moore argued that the possible truth of (1) shows that there must be multiple senses of “looks.” Moore’s example prefigures by thirty years a much-cited discussion by Christopher Peacocke about trees and apparent size with which Peacocke illustrates a contrast between sensational and representational properties of experience. This chapter argues that Moore’s argument for different senses of “looks” is unsound, and hence that we need a different explanation of how we mark the contrast between appearances which conflict and those which do not. The essay closes by offering such an account.
spellingShingle Martin, MGF
Variation and change in appearances
title Variation and change in appearances
title_full Variation and change in appearances
title_fullStr Variation and change in appearances
title_full_unstemmed Variation and change in appearances
title_short Variation and change in appearances
title_sort variation and change in appearances
work_keys_str_mv AT martinmgf variationandchangeinappearances