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London Aesthetics Forum: Non-Foundational Direct Access: What it is and Why it Matters for the Epistemology of Aesthetics

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London Aesthetics Forum

Non-Foundational Direct Access: What it is and Why it Matters for the Epistemology of Aesthetics

Errol Lord (University of Pennsylvania)

Date: 01 Nov 2017, 16:00 to 18:00

Venue: Room 234, Second Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Abstract

This paper is a defence of the epistemic significance of cognitively penetrated perceptions of high-level properties. While some are motivated by epistemic considerations to accept the existence of cognitively penetrated perceptions of high-level properties, it has been recently argued that such perceptions cannot play a significant epistemic role. This is because such perceptions are ill-suited to provide foundational justification. They are ill-suited because it is plausible that their epistemic standing is held hostage to the background cognitive states that do the penetrating. I argue that such perceptions are epistemically significant even if they don’t provide foundational justification. I do this by showing that the sort of non-foundational direct access such perceptions afford is crucial to the epistemology of aesthetics