Externalist Solutions: Teleofunctional Accounts
Externalist Solutions: Teleofunctional Accounts
This chapter discusses a second type of externalist account of Cartesian sensations – viz., a teleofunctional one – and its alleged advantage of dissolving the problem of sensory misrepresentation (since, according to this account, sensory ideas end up being representations of their correct objects, i.e., ecological properties). The chapter argues that this reading lacks textual support (since the teleological jargon of Meditation Six can be read in alternative ways); it introduces more theoretical problems than it solves for Descartes; and it does not have the advantage of solving the problem of sensory misrepresentation that it is advertised as having.
Keywords: teleology, sensations, teleofunctional accounts, Meditation Six, sensory misrepresentation, ecological properties
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