Bivs, Space and 'in'

Mac Cumhaill, Clare

Abstract

I present a novel anti-sceptical BIV argument by focusing on conditions on the production and use of the locative preposition ‘in’. I distinguish two uses of ‘in’—material and descriptive phenomenological—and I explain in what respect movement is central to the concept that our use of ‘in’ expresses. I go on to argue that a functionalist semantics of the intelligible use of ‘in’ demands a materialist philosophy of action in the spirit of G.E.M. Anscombe, but also why the structure of space is not irrelevant either; appeal to the structure of space unsettles the causal-empirical assumptions that ground the picture of subjectivity and agency that the biv narrative assumes. Finally, I explain why a functionalist semantics demands a Naïve Realist metaphysics of perception, consistent with some of Putnam’s last writings on philosophy of perception.

Citation

Mac Cumhaill, C. (2022). Bivs, Space and 'in'. Erkenntnis, 87(1), 369-392. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-019-00198-z

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 25, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Feb 11, 2020
• Publication Date: 2022-02
• Deposit Date: Nov 7, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 20, 2020
• Journal: Erkenntnis
• Print ISSN: 0165-0106
• Electronic ISSN: 1572-8420
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 87
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 369-392
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-019-00198-z
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1284147