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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that When animals receive perceptual forms, perception results; when non-living entities are affected by seemingly the same forms, only non-perceptual alteration occurs.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Thermostats and photoreceptive cells in plants respond differentially to environmental forms in ways functionally analogous to animal perception, per Dretske's informational theory of perception.
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    • 2.If functional sensitivity to environmental information constitutes the relevant criterion, the animal/non-living boundary cannot do the philosophical work Aristotle's hylomorphic account requires.
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    • 3.Without a non-question-begging account of 'suitable character,' the claim reduces to the empirical assertion that only animals perceive, stripping it of genuine explanatory force.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.The distinction between 'suitable character' and mere material constitution is explanatorily vacuous without an independent criterion beyond the capacity to perceive itself.
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    • 2.Invoking the nature of the patient to explain perception risks circular reasoning: animals perceive because they have perceptual natures, which are defined by their capacity to perceive.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Animals, unlike non-living entities such as tofu, have the suitable character to perceive
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    • 2.The difference between perception and mere alteration lies in the nature of the patient receiving the form
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