Perception and Reality in Kant, Husserl, and McDowell (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)

How does perception give us access to external reality? This book critically engages with John McDowell’s conceptualist answer to this question, by offering a new exploration of his views on perception and reality in relation to those of Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl.

In six chapters, the book examines these thinkers’ respective theories of perception, lucidly describing how they fit within their larger philosophical views on mind and reality. It thereby not only reveals the continuity of a tradition that underlies today’s fragmented scholarly landscape, but also yields a new critique of McDowell’s conceptualist theory. In doing so, the book contributes to the ongoing bridging of traditions, by combining analytic philosophy, Kantian philosophy, and phenomenology.

Perception and Reality in Kant, Husserl, and McDowell will appeal to scholars and students working in the history of philosophy, phenomenology, Kantian philosophy, and in particular the philosophy of perception.

Corijn van Mazijk studied philosophy in Groningen and Leuven. He currently works as university lecturer and researcher at University of Groningen, Faculty of Philosophy. He recently published articles in Continental Philosophy Review, Human Studies, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, and Southern Journal of Philosophy.