On Wednesday, December 13th, Professor Susanna Siegel--Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy at Harvard-- joined BPL Presents and Brooklyn Public Philosophers to share work from her recent book The Rationality of Perception. Siegel's book takes as its point of departure the truism that different people see the world differently and investigates whether, given this truth, perception itself be rational or irrational and, if so, how we can tell. As the advertisement for the talk notes:
Professor Siegel tackles the following misconception: Traditional concepts of mind view reasoning as rational or irrational, but perception cannot be. Perception is simply a source of new information, and cannot be assessed for rationality. In her book The Rationality of Perception, Susanna Siegel argues that this conception is wrong. Drawing on examples involving racism, emotion, self-defense law, and scientific theories, The Rationality of Perception makes the case that perception itself can be rational or irrational.