Between Perception and Action

What mediates between sensory input and motor output? What makes it possible to act on what you perceive? Bence Nanay argues that pragmatic representations provide the perceptual guidance for performing actions. They play a key role in our mental lives, and help explain why the majority of our mental processes are very similar to those of animals.

Bence Nanay is Professor of Philosophy and BOF Research Professor at the University of Antwerp and Senior Research Associate at Peterhouse, Cambridge University. He received his PhD at University of California, Berkeley in 2006. He is the editor of Perceiving the World (OUP, 2010) and Aesthetics as Philosophy of Perception (OUP). He published more than seventy articles on philosophy of mind, philosophy of biology, and aesthetics.

1: Introduction
2: Pragmatic representation
3: Perception
4: Action
5: Pragmatic mental imagery
6: Vicarious perception
Index