Naive Introspection in the Philosophy of Perception
Review of Philosophy and Psychology December 22, 2021 Maja Spener 15 citations
The paper argues that current philosophers of perception rely on introspection in two distinct ways—introspective access and introspective method—without clearly distinguishing them. Concerns raised over a century ago by Introspectionist Psychologists about using introspection to gather data on consciousness apply to these contemporary philosophical uses but remain unacknowledged. Applying this distinction reveals that arguments based on introspective phenomenal descriptions are methodologically flawed. The critique does not reject introspection entirely but calls for more careful application in philosophical theorizing.