10.4225/03/58f6ae87e045b
Ryoji Sato
Ryoji
Sato
Perceptual phenomenology and predictive processing
Monash University
2017
Perception
Consciousness
Predictive coding
Predictive processing
Perceptual presence
Temporal consciousness
Social perception
Philosophy
2017-04-19 00:25:41
Thesis
https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/thesis/Perceptual_phenomenology_and_predictive_processing/4887350
This thesis is about
five aspects of our perceptual phenomenology that all coincidentally start with P: presence, poverty, present,
particularity, and persons. <br>
<br>
All of these are much discussed in contemporary philosophical
debates but they are also notoriously difficult to explain. The thesis is an
attempt to give new conceptual and phenomenological analyses of the five aspects and identify
common core features among all of them. It turns out that they naturally invite a contemporary neurocomputational explanatory framework: predictive processing. In this way,
the thesis provides a novel, unified explanatory approach to distinctive aspects of human perceptual
world. <br>
<br>
Despite its diversity of topics, a common theme emerges after
conceptual clarification. The topics are, at their core, all related to
the topic of how representastions of deep aspects of the world and those of more shallow, palpable
aspects of the world interact and how they form coherent percepts. This calls for
a hierarchical structure equipped with precision expectations in predictive
processing. By appealing to predictive processing, it is shown that higher level models “create”
contents at lower levels, where relevant sensory stimulation were not available at the time
of experience. <br>
<br>
The approach of the thesis is interdisciplinary—I use both
philosophy and cognitive neuroscience to elucidate the phenomena, All the chapters for
the five Ps begin with <br>philosophical analysis of the subject matter, which then sets
the scene for, and is facilitated by, the predictive processing framework. In turn,
science can benefit from philosophical analysis and I formulated empirical predictions
in each chapter.