Vision, Perspectivism, and Haptic Realism

Abstract

In this article I examine the perceptual metaphor at the heart of perspectivism, discussing three elements: partiality, interestedness, and interaction. I argue that perspectivists should drop the visual metaphor in favor of a haptic one. Because the sense of touch requires contact and purposeful exploration on the part of the perceiver, it is obvious that with touch one apprehends an extradermal reality in virtue of and not in spite of its interactive and interested nature. By analogy, perspectivists should investigate the thesis that scientific representations inform us about the natural world in virtue of their interactive and interested qualities.

Perceptual science and the nature of perception

“…Joining a quite long, albeit minoritarian, tradition in philosophy of perception (e.g. Kalderon, 2017;Merleau-Ponty, 2013;Noë, 2004), Chirimuuta's interactionist account of color perception emphasizes the similarities between vision and touch, which questions even more whether the measuring instrument conception 'belongs' in an explanation of individual-level perception (Chirimuuta, 2016b). Indeed, the sense of touch works through dynamic interaction between the perceiver and the object touched: we reach, grasp, rub, poke, squeeze, etc., and most of the time we do this deliberately, as intentional actions performed by us individuals rather than by our sensory subsystems.…”

Perspectival Instruments

“…3 See Cret ¸u 2020c for an accessible overview. 4 For more general problems with perspectivism, beyond those related to scientific instruments, see Chakravartty (2010;, Chirimuuta (2016), and Morrison (2011). For a sustained defence of perspectivism see Massimi (2012;2018a;b;c;.…”

“…3 See Creţu (2020c) for an accessible overview. 4 For more general problems with perspectivism, see Chakravartty (2010), Chirimuuta (2016), and Morrison (2011). For a sustained defence of perspectivism, see Massimi (2012Massimi ( , 2018aMassimi ( , 2018bMassimi ( , 2018cMassimi ( , 2018d.…”

Ontology and values anchor indigenous and grey nomenclatures: a case study in lichen naming practices among the Samí, Sherpa, Scots, and Okanagan

“…In this way, naming practices provide the investigator a route to knowledge about a portion of the world. This agent-centered interactionist account can also be seen in Mazviita Chirimuuta's (2016) notion of 'haptic' realism (a perspectival approach she applies to vision research); Michela Massimi's (forthcoming) 'perspectival realism' and 'naturalized Kantianism' (Massimi 2014); Uljana Feest's (2011) 'operationist' approach to research on short-term memory, and the Anishinaabe 'perception of social-ecological environments' as described by Iain Davidson-Hunt and Fikret Berkes (2003). For Chirimuuta, the word 'haptic' is intended to elucidate a particular sort of knowledge-yielding interaction that exists between the investigator and that which is being investigated.…”