Perception and Action Essays

Over the last half century, John McDowell has solidified a singular career in the history and evolution of philosophy. This volume--one half of a companion-volume set--collects a series of essays from the eminent philosopher on perception and action. The first section of this volume focuses on the ways that perceptual experiences can mislead us. Included are the essays "Perception as a capacity for knowledge," and "Perceptual experience and empirical rationality," among others. The second section is comprised of a longstanding conversation with philosopher Charles Travis. While McDowell argues that we should take the perceptual experiences of rational perceivers to have content that is in a certain sense conceptual, Travis radically disagrees. He argues that our perceptual experience, like the perceptions of animals that do not have conceptual capacities, simply places our surroundings before us. Included here are the essays "Perceptual knowledge: both relational and contentful," and "Are the senses silent?" among others. This volume presents some of the most important philosophical conversations in recent memory in a much-needed book format. It brings together crucial philosophical developments from the past few decades and is a fitting companion to the volume Mind, World, and German Idealism.