Forthcoming Research Seminars and Lectures

18th October 2012: Robin Le Poidevin (Leeds) - Stopped clocks, silent telephones and sense data

(10 July 2012)

Weekly Research Seminar

This seminar will be held in room 005, 48/49 Old Elvet, Durham.  Refreshments will be served from 11am with the talk commencing  at 11.30am.

Title:  Stopped clocks, silent telephones and sense data

Abstract:

We are familiar with perceptual illusions (think of the bent stick illusion, the Müller-Lyer illusion, and the Ames Room….). Somewhat less familiar are temporal illusions: illusions concerning the temporal features of the perceived object, one example of which is the ‘stopped clock’ illusion. I want to suggest that these temporal illusions are philosophically interesting in two ways: they make a distinctive contribution to the direct realist/sense datum theory debate over perception, and they undermine a popular argument in favour of the objective passage of time, namely that passage is an ineliminable feature of our temporal experience.