An adverbialist approach to the perception-cognition distinction

Abstract:  We propose that perception and cognition are distinct families of psychological capacities unified and distinguished by the ways or manners in which such capacities are exercised. In particular, perceptual capacities include those exercised in a stimulus-dependent manner, while cognitive capacities include those exercised in a stimulus-independent manner. This yields a non-exclusive taxonomy of capacities and episodes belonging to perception and cognition. Our adverbialist approach to the perception-cognition distinction handles tough cases and has advantages over other accounts, such as architectural and format-based approaches.