The Role of Representation in Visual Perception: An Introduction

The question of the roles of representation in visual perception – the inspiration for the title of this volume – has witnessed a rapid growth in interest in the philosophy of perception in recent decades. Despite its utter familiarity, the notion of representation that lies at the center of this query remains somewhat illusive. For the purposes of the present introduction, however, we shall use the term broadly to mean, variably, resemblance, causal co-variation, model, prediction, and hypothesis, to mention just a few of its many meanings. The contributions to this volume inquire into the roles of representation in perception, in all of these senses.