In February’s Philosophy research seminar – the final one before the world went into lockdown – Dr Solveig Aasen flew over from Oslo to tell us about Mediated Perception of Representing and Non-Representing Objects.

Dr Aasen asked how we can make sense of a distinction between perception of representations such as pictures and speech, and perception of objects and properties themselves. One idea would be to focus on a difference in perceptual structure: When perceiving representing objects like pictures and speech, one becomes aware of one thing (e.g. a person, a meaning) in, by or in virtue of perceiving something else (e.g. a surface or a sound). However, such mediation also occurs for various cases of perception of objects and properties themselves. Dr Aasen critically assessed various ways to demarcate sensory mediation from representational mediation.