Intuitions' Linguistic Sources: Stereotypes, Intuitions and Illusions

Mind and Language 31 (1):67-103 (2016)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Intuitive judgments elicited by verbal case-descriptions play key roles in philosophical problem-setting and argument. Experimental philosophy's ‘sources project’ seeks to develop psychological explanations of philosophically relevant intuitions which help us assess our warrant for accepting them. This article develops a psycholinguistic explanation of intuitions prompted by philosophical case-descriptions. For proof of concept, we target intuitions underlying a classic paradox about perception, trace them to stereotype-driven inferences automatically executed in verb comprehension, and employ a forced-choice plausibility-ranking task to elicit the relevant stereotypical associations of perception- and appearance-verbs. We obtain a debunking explanation that resolves the philosophical paradox.

Author Profiles

Eugen Fischer
University of East Anglia

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-03-02

Downloads
954 (#12,432)

6 months
119 (#25,897)

Historical graph of downloads since first upload
This graph includes both downloads from PhilArchive and clicks on external links on PhilPapers.
How can I increase my downloads?