Abstract
The problem of sentience and how we are to understand it is addressed. It is argued inter alia that sentience can find its place in psychological theory only in relation to perception and other modes of awareness. Basic issues examined, therefore, pertain to the subjective, experiential element in perception, to the qualitative contents of perceptual and imaginai awarenesses. These issues are basic to the theory of the percept (and image) and have to do with where and how to locate the experiential element in a materialist world view. Subjective knowledge of qualitative contents is no less structural than knowledge by description; any advantage that exists is in respect to a mode of knowing rather than in what can be known about them. The subject ‘participates’ in what he comes to know, but such participation does not make for knowledge unique to him. Nor does what he knows by this route count against qualitative contents belonging to brain processes, except perhaps for the problematic property of ‘grain’. The discussion proceeds via review and evaluation of a variety of relevant views and arguments.
Keywords
PsychologyExperiential learningPerceptionElement (criminal law)Cognitive psychologySocial psychologyApplied psychologyMathematics educationNeuroscience
Related Publications
The psychology of social movements.
Hadley Cantril looked beyond surface of social movements to examine psychology behind them. What motivates people to follow an untried leader? What does social environment do...
Brain mechanisms associated with top-down processes in perception
Perception arises through an interaction between sensory input and prior knowledge. We propose that at least two brain areas are required for such an interaction: the ‘site’ whe...
Embodied Knowledge
The study of teachers' personal practical knowledge is an emerging orientation that focuses on the way teachers' understanding of their world affects the way they structure clas...
An introduction to cybernetics
Many workers in the biological sciencesphysiologists, psycholo- gists, sociologistsare interested in cybernetics and would like to apply its methods and techniques to their own ...
Theory-Based Stress Measurement
Although arguments about how to measure psychological stress are typically based on implicit epistemological and theoretical assumptions, stress measurement has almost never bee...
Publication Info
- Year
- 1974
- Type
- review
- Volume
- 81
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 611-631
- Citations
- 55
- Access
- Closed
External Links
Social Impact
Altmetric
PlumX Metrics
Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions
Citation Metrics
55
OpenAlex
Cite This
Thomas Natsoulas
(1974).
The subjective, experiential element in perception..
Psychological Bulletin
, 81
(10)
, 611-631.
https://doi.org/10.1037/h0036941
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1037/h0036941