eprintid: 10138461 rev_number: 16 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/13/84/61 datestamp: 2021-11-17 16:24:20 lastmod: 2022-04-05 13:19:43 status_changed: 2021-11-17 16:24:20 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Madden, R title: Reflexivity, Realism, and Consciousness ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B03 divisions: C01 divisions: F16 keywords: Ayers; knowledge; perception; reflexivity; realism; consciousness note: This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract: The author raises a puzzle about the compatibility of the two features which, according to Ayers, jointly characterize paradigmatic cases of seeing, viz. ‘perspicuity’ and ‘immediacy’. In Section 1, the author explains why Ayers’s explanation of these two features suggests an inconsistent combination of reflexivity and realism about sense experience. Some of Ayers’s comments about our awareness of causation suggest a way of giving up on reflexivity. In Section 2, the author uses a thought-experiment to support the view that realism rather than reflexivity ought to be given up. In Section 3, the author gives a further reason for Ayers to take this option: it furnishes a response to a troublesome challenge concerning the epistemic significance of consciousness, a challenge which Ayers himself anticipates at the end of Chapter 2 of Knowing and Seeing but does not fully resolve. date: 2022-11-19 date_type: published official_url: https://doi.org/10.1163/18756735-00000151 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1901158 doi: 10.1163/18756735-00000151 lyricists_name: Madden, Rory lyricists_id: RMADD49 actors_name: Madden, Rory actors_id: RMADD49 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Grazer Philosophische Studien volume: 98 number: 4 pagerange: 503-515 issn: 1875-6735 citation: Madden, R; (2022) Reflexivity, Realism, and Consciousness. Grazer Philosophische Studien , 98 (4) pp. 503-515. 10.1163/18756735-00000151 <https://doi.org/10.1163/18756735-00000151>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10138461/1/Madden_%5B18756735%20-%20Grazer%20Philosophische%20Studien%5D%20Reflexivity%2C%20Realism%2C%20and%20Consciousness%20%281%29.pdf