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    Human cognition cannot access things as they are in thems... — Carmelics
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    Perspectives
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    42
    Home/Skepticism
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    Human cognition cannot access things as they are in themselves, regardless of the number or type of sense faculties possessed.

    PerceptionSkepticism
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.All cognition in any sentient creature must be mediated by some method of cognizing.
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    • 2.Any new method of cognizing would still yield only phenomenal knowledge, not knowledge of things as they are in themselves.
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    • 3.Even if humans acquired extra sense faculties or new ways of perceiving, knowledge gained would remain 'merely phenomenal'.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Some cognitive access is constitutively non-representational: in direct realist accounts (Reid, Putnam), perception is not a veil but a relation to the object itself.
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    • 2.If perception is a genuine relation to external objects rather than a representation of them, the mediating act does not entail that only phenomenal knowledge results.
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    • 3.The inference from 'all cognition is mediated' to 'all cognition yields only phenomenal knowledge' presupposes a representationalist model of perception that direct realism rejects.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Kant's own framework permits synthetic a priori knowledge of structural features (causality, space, time) that are necessarily instantiated in any possible experience, grounding objective validity.
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    • 2.If cognitive structures are constitutive of the objects of possible experience rather than merely subjective filters, the phenomenal/noumenal gap does not preclude genuine knowledge of objective structure.
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    • 3.Cassirer and neo-Kantians argue that structural or relational knowledge (as in mathematical physics) counts as knowledge of reality, not merely of appearances, undermining the claim's absolutism.
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    Topics

    SkepticismPerception

    Connections

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    Consciousness & Mind1 linked

    Related

    All cognition in any sentient creature must be mediated by some method of cogniz...Any new method of cognizing would still yield only phenomenal knowledge, not kno...Cassirer and neo-Kantians argue that structural or relational knowledge (as in m...Even if humans acquired extra sense faculties or new ways of perceiving, knowled...
    +5 moreShow less
    If cognitive structures are constitutive of the objects of possible experience r...If perception is a genuine relation to external objects rather than a representa...Kant's own framework permits synthetic a priori knowledge of structural features...Some cognitive access is constitutively non-representational: in direct realist ...The inference from 'all cognition is mediated' to 'all cognition yields only phe...

    Similar

    The argument applies regardless of the specific sense faculties humans...82%Expanding scientific knowledge or sensory capacity would not overcome ...81%Direct perception does not provide access to objects outside the mind.81%Therefore the conceptual constitution of objects of cognition is unavo...80%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: mill
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    Its bears emphasis that Mill’s argument about the limits of human cognition does not depend on our current state of scientific knowledge—or indeed upon the particular sense faculties we possess. Even if we had extra sense faculties or could come to perceive in new ways, he notes, all knowledge that would still be “merely phaenomenal” (Examination, IX: 8). Cognition, in any sentient creature must be mediated by some method of cognising—and if even if we came to possess new ways of cognizing the w
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit