books — The Brains Blog

4. Common Knowledge and Experience in Social Space

Axel Seemann June 13, 2019 June 14, 2019 Axel Seemann: The Shared World

We act in an environment in which much is in public view, and you might very well think that perceptual facts that cannot be known in common cannot be known at all. For any account that aims to explain the public character of our perceptual surroundings, the notion of common …

3. Demonstration and Communication

Axel Seemann June 12, 2019 June 13, 2019 Axel Seemann: The Shared World

“One cannot not communicate”: this slightly unsettling axiom of Watzlawick’s (1967) is necessarily true of creatures operating in social space. The social spatial framework is not simply given to but achieved by us through activities in which demonstrative gestures play a vital role. We point, nudge, and direct others’ gaze towards …

2. Acting in Social Space

Axel Seemann June 11, 2019 June 11, 2019 Axel Seemann: The Shared World

Consider the spatial arrangement that has to be in place if a creature is to act in its environment. One requirement is that the creature operate with an egocentric spatial framework – that it be able to determine the location of objects relative to its own position in space (Evans 1982). …

1. Living in the Shared World

Axel Seemann June 10, 2019 June 11, 2019 Axel Seemann: The Shared World

Many thanks to John Schwenkler for giving me the opportunity to write about The Shared World (MIT Press 2019). A question that has long fascinated me is how perceivers and agents can be operating in an environment that is public or, as I also say, shared; a world in which …

Now Featured

John Schwenkler June 10, 2019 June 16, 2019 books

We are pleased to have Axel Seeman blogging this week on The Shared World: Perceptual Common Knowledge, Demonstrative Communication, and Social Space, recently published by The MIT Press. To view all his posts on a single page, please click here.

4. Political and Perceptual Differences

Kevin Connolly May 16, 2019 May 16, 2019 Attention / books / Kevin Connolly: Perceptual Learning / perception / Philosophy of Mind / Psychology

Last December, The Washington Post resurfaced a short video clip of Heather Nauert, nominee for US Ambassador to the United Nations. In the video Nauert attempted to make the case that there was a strong historical relationship between the United States and Germany. The Post described her as citing the …

3. Learning to Perceive in a Multisensory Way

Kevin Connolly May 15, 2019 May 15, 2019 books / Kevin Connolly: Perceptual Learning / perception / Philosophy of Mind / Psychology

Suppose you are at a live jazz show. The drummer begins a drum solo. You see the cymbal jolt. You hear a clang. And you are aware that the jolt and the clang are part of the same event. This is a case of multisensory perception. In my book, I …