Abstract

OLIVEIRA, Andréa O.  and  MOURAO-JUNIOR, Carlos Alberto. Theoretical study on perception in philosophy and neuroscience. Neuropsicologia Latinoamericana [online]. 2013, vol.5, n.2, pp. 41-53. ISSN 2075-9479.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5579/rnl.2012.0083.

The present study aims to investigate the concept of perception in philosophy and in neuroscience. Two major concepts of sensation and perception make part of the philosophical tradition: empiricism and rationalism. In the twentieth century, however, philosophy changed these two traditions through a new conception of sensitive knowledge. The changes were brought about by the phenomenology and the psychology of form or gestalt theory. The perception is closely linked to the senses, representing the first steps taken by the sensory systems, being responsible for its analytical phase. Each feature could be separated into its constituent parts, such as shape, color, movement and so on. However, we perceive the world with uncompromising integrity and not with feelings fractionated, which suggests that there are other mechanisms besides those of analytical nature, which contribute to our synthetic perception. It is necessary to understand how perception, strictly subjective concept, relates to the brain, an approach widely studied by cognitive neuroscience. However, the current evidence indicates that perception is an active process - the brain constructs and edits their perceptions through biological factors but governed by historical and cultural factors.

Keywords : Perception; Sensation; Cognition; Neuroscience; Philosophy.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish | French     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )