Joshua Trubowitz

A widespread view has it that, for Aristotle, perception’s psychological and physiological aspects are phenomenal consciousness and its underlying material basis. I argue that on the contrary, they are judgment/discrimination and receptivity: in virtue of our sense-organs, we are receptive to objects of perception; in virtue of our souls, we judge or discriminate these objects. In effect, Aristotle divides perception’s active and passive aspects between soul and body. I defend this view with special attention to Aristotle’s claim that our senses receive form without matter in perception.

Aristotle’s account of perceptual self-consciousness (‘perceiving that we perceive’) is typically approached as an attempt to explain how we know our own mental states. In particular, Aristotle is taken to understand perceptual self-consciousness as a function of the mind or soul’s quasi-perceptual relation to itself. I argue instead that Aristotle understands perceptual self-consciousness as the (veridical) perception that we are confronted with an external object. This is not a matter of knowing our own mental states, but of knowing that we know: in particular, of knowing that an external object is apparent to us through our sense-organs. I conclude with a discussion of Aristotle’s broader interest in perceptual self-consciousness.