Thomas Reid on aesthetic, moral, and pathological perception

Thomas Reid’s theory of perception includes an account of what he calls original perception, by which typical perceivers see colors, feel shapes, hear sounds, smell odors, and taste flavors. This original perception allows us to represent very basic features in the environment. But Reid also presents a rich account of what he calls acquired perception. According to Reid, we are capable of acquiring perceptual sensitivity to features not given in original perception. For example, we acquire the ability to see distance, size, and shape, though those features are not original to vision. We also acquire the ability to perceive higher-order properties—properties like ‘being a tomato,’ or ‘being a Pinot Noir.’ When we examine Reid’s account of aesthetic and moral perception, we find a similar developmental account of our perceptual capacities. I examine Reid’s theory and draw some general conclusions about what we can learn from it about cases of pathological seeing, for example, cases of implicit bias.

For further information about Professor Copenhaver, please see:

https://sites.google.com/site/rebeccabeckocopenhaver/ and

http://college.lclark.edu/departments/philosophy/