Irreducible Cognitive Phenomenology and the Aha! Experience
John Joseph Dorsch
Phenomenology and Mind January 3, 2017 DOI: 10.13128/phe_mi-20095 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Key points | Argues that an augmented case for irreducible cognitive phenomenology, grounded in presentational phenomenology of high-level content rather than intuition or seeming to see, can withstand attempts to reduce cognitive phenomenology to sensory phenomenology. The author interprets Bowden and Jung-Beeman's Aha! Experience findings as further evidence, proposing that the Aha! Experience is a species of the experience of understanding. |
Abstract
Elijah Chudnoff’s case for irreducible cognitive phenomenology hinges on seeming to see the truth of a mathematical proposition (Chudnoff 2015). In the following, I develop an augmented version of Chudnoff’s case, not based on seeming to see, or intuition, but based on being in a state with presentational phenomenology of high-level content. In contrast to other cases for cognitive phenomenology, those based on Strawson’s case (Strawson 2011), I argue that the case presented here is able to withstand counterarguments, which attempt to reduce cognitive phenomenology to sensory phenomenology. To support my argument, I present findings from Bowden and Jung-Beeman’s experiments with the Aha! Experience (Bowden & Jung-Beeman 2004), and argue that the Aha! Experience is a species of the experience of understanding presented here. I interpret the results of these experiments to provide further evidence for irreducible cognitive phenomenology.
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