Bayesian Modeling of Perceiving: A Guide to Basic Principles

Philosophical reflection on perceptual consciousness has typically adopted a modality-specific perspective as its point of departure. According to this approach, an account of perceptual consciousness as a whole will simply fall out of an account of each of the various perceptual modalities. In this chapter, Tim Baynes argues against one manifestation of this atomistic approach to perceptual experience: the decomposition thesis. According to the decomposition thesis, a person?s overall perceptual experience can be identified with the sum of their modality-specific experiences. He examines objections to the decomposition thesis deriving from three sources: the phenomenal unity of consciousness, the existence of common sensibles, and the nature of multisensory integration, focusing in most detail on the last of these three objections.