What is Touch?

Ratcliffe, M.

Abstract

This paper addresses the nature of touch or ‘tactual perception’. I argue that touch encompasses a wide range of perceptual achievements, that treating it as a number of separate senses will not work, and that the permissive conception we are left with is so permissive that it is unclear how touch might be distinguished from the other senses. I conclude that no criteria will succeed in individuating touch. Although I do not rule out the possibility that this also applies to other senses, I suggest that the heterogeneity of touch makes it both distinctive and particularly problematic.

Citation

Ratcliffe, M. (2012). What is Touch?. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 90(3), 413-432. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2011.598173

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2012
• Deposit Date: Jun 15, 2011
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 26, 2013
• Journal: Australasian Journal of Philosophy
• Print ISSN: 0004-8402
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-6828
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 90
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 413-432
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2011.598173
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1508627