Sensation and the Grammar of Life: Anscombe’s Procedure and Her Purpose

Mac Cumhaill, Clare; Wiseman, Rachael

doi:10.1093/oso/9780198853534.003.0014

Sensation and the Grammar of Life: Anscombe’s Procedure and Her Purpose

Mac Cumhaill, Clare; Wiseman, Rachael

Authors

Dr Clare Mac Cumhaill clare.maccumhaill@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Rachael Wiseman

Contributors

Heather Logue
Editor

Louise Richardson
Editor

Abstract

Anscombe’s published writings, lectures, and notes on sensation offer material for a sophisticated critique of philosophical theories of perception and a novel analysis of the concept of sensation. Her philosophy of perception begins with the traditional question, ‘What are the objects of sensation?’, but the response is a grammatical rather than ontological enquiry. What, she asks, are the characteristics of the grammatical object of sensation verbs? Anscombe’s answer is: sensation verbs take ‘intentional objects’, where an ‘intentional object’ is a description which has the characteristics of the concept of intention—characteristics elucidated in detail in her Intention. This allows Anscombe to reject two opposing positions—that the objects of sensation are sense data, and that they are ordinary objects. Both views, she argues, fail to recognize the grammatical fact that verbs of sensation take intentional objects. This chapter sets out Anscombe’s analysis and outlines the case for a grammatical methodology. Along the way, it will be shown that Anscombe’s philosophy of perception should not be read as forerunning contemporary representationalism.

Citation

Mac Cumhaill, C., & Wiseman, R. (2021). Sensation and the Grammar of Life: Anscombe’s Procedure and Her Purpose. In H. Logue, & L. Richardson (Eds.), Purpose and Procedure in Philosophy of Perception (276-294). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198853534.003.0014

Online Publication Date	May 20, 2021
Publication Date	2021-05
Deposit Date	Nov 7, 2019
Publicly Available Date	May 20, 2023
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Pages	276-294
Book Title	Purpose and Procedure in Philosophy of Perception
ISBN	9780198853534
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198853534.003.0014