Consciousness in Philosophy and Cognitive Neuroscience

3	Filling in: Why Dennett is Wrong

Patricia Smith ChurchlandUniversity of California at San Diego

Vilayanur S. RamachandranUniversity of California at San Diego

INTRODUCTION

It comes as a surprise to discover that the foveal area in which one has high resolution and high acuity vision is minute; it encompasses a mere 2° of visual angle—roughly, the area of the thumbnail at arm’s length. The introspective guess concerning acuity in depth likewise errs on the side of extravagance; the region of crisp, fused perception is, at arm’s length, only a few centimeters deep; closer in, the area of fused perception is even narrower. The eyes make a small movement—a saccade—about every 200–300 milliseconds, sampling the scene by shifting continuously ...