Entries by Colin McGinn

Does Arithmetic Rest on a Mistake?

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  Does Arithmetic Rest on a Mistake?   How can the statement “1 + 1 = 2” be true? How can the operation of adding 1 to itself produce the number 2? There is only one number 1, so how could it by itself give rise to the distinct number 2? If you add the […]

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Intuitive Knowledge

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    Intuitive Knowledge   The OED defines “intuition” as “immediate apprehension by the intellect alone” (among other meanings). Intuitive knowledge, then, is knowledge by the intellect alone—knowledge by pure intellection. The senses play no part in it. Empirical knowledge, by contrast, is defined as knowledge by means of the senses, perhaps allowing a contribution […]

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Ears

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Ears   It began over a year ago when a small red patch appeared on the top of my right ear. At first it was diagnosed as inflammation of the cartilage probably brought on by wearing too tight headphones. The cure was not to put any pressure on it and wait for the inflammation to […]

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Blindsight and Empiricism

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  Blindsight and Empiricism   Imagine a person with blindsight in every sense: no conscious perceptual experience at all but able to receive information subconsciously from the external world. This person nevertheless has ordinary fully conscious reason: she is capable of forming beliefs that count as knowledge in virtue of the informational input. It would […]

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Saying and Showing

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    Saying and Showing   Wittgenstein famously introduced the distinction between saying and showing in the Tractatus. I won’t be concerned with his treatment of the distinction, either by way of interpretation or evaluation; but I will be using the terminology. I want to say that every speech act includes an act of showing, […]

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Time and Truth

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  Time and Truth   Truth relates to time in an interesting way: once a fact obtains a corresponding proposition is instantaneously true. On the one hand is a fact, say the fact that it just started raining at a certain place, while on the other is a proposition (a belief or assertion), say that […]

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Action As Externalization

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  Action As Externalization   The causal theory of action says that actions consist of a causal link between an inner mental state (a reason, an intention, a willing) and a piece of behavior (an arm rising, flicking the switch). The mental state causes the behavior in the same way a tap on the knee […]

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Perception As Internalization

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  Perception As Internalization   We have become accustomed to thinking of perception as a type of causal relation, sharing its logical (metaphysical) features. As earthquakes cause buildings to collapse, so external objects cause experiences to occur. Cause and effect are external to each other; neither is contained in the other. But this picture fails […]

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