Puzzle of Experience and Some of Its Solutions

Abstract

The article introduces the so-called puzzle of experience, i.e. the question what is the object of our sensual perception. It follows from tha fact that, at least sometimes, the same objects if percieved in different circumstances appear differently, e.g. in the cases of illusions and hallucinations. It is therefore not clear if how we perceive them has to do anything at all, with what they are really like. The article tries to illuminate and answer the problem by the introduction of several theories of perception stretching from different sorts of realism over sense-datum theories to the adverbial theory, intentionalism and the disjunctive theory. Since none of the theories is without flaws, some of them are also listed, which implies that there is still no consensus on perception, the article concludes that what it is to be picked is a result of our belief what theory can be defended best.