Perceptual Modes of Presentation

Representational externalism is the view that what an individual’s mental state represents is determined in part by facts external to the individual. Representationalism has it that we are only ever aware of what we represent to be the case. According to phenomenal internalism, what it is like to perceive—the phenomenal character of perceptual states—is determined wholly by facts internal to the perceiver. Each thesis has compelling arguments and intuitions behind it, but taken together they are inconsistent, so something has to give. Quite a few philosophers hold the first two while denying the third, but this leaves them with the task of explaining away powerful intuitions favoring phenomenal internalism. This paper accounts for what it is like to see a property in terms of perceptual modes of presentation and shows that this can accommodate intuitions in favor of phenomenal internalism without vindicating the thesis itself