Thomas Reid and the Puzzle of Perspective

Shows how Thomas Reid's theory of vision helps solving issues in contemporary philosophy of perception

• Brings eighteenth-century philosophy into direct dialogue with current systematic questions about perception
• Defends the idea that the immediate objects of vision are mind-independent, non-Euclidean visible figures
• Introduces a theory of colour perception that accounts for variations in colour experience without leaping into colour subjectivism
• Develops a new theory of hearing that comprises insights from medial theories and located event theories of hearing
• Reveals similarities and differences between perspective in spatial and temporal experience

How can we make sense of the fact that people appear smaller when seen from far away and yet do not appear to become smaller? How is it possible that a tilted penny looks elliptical and also looks round? Based on Thomas Reid’s theory of vision this book explains that our visual experience acquaints us with two sorts of shape properties: real figures and visible figures. Both are mind-independent and external; the latter, however, exist relative to a viewpoint in space. Moreover, visible figures have non-Euclidean geometrical properties. The book also applies this Reidean approach to the case of colour perception, hearing and temporal experience.