Helmholtz on Unconscious Inference in Experience

Abstract

Hermann von Helmholtz’s career was among those that defined scientific research in 19th-century Germany. He contributed to physiology, mathematics, optics, acoustics, electromagnetism, fluid mechanics, and related fields. His research into perceptual phenomena, including color perception (for which he invented an opthalmoscope at the same time as Charles Babbage’s), spatial perception, and harmony and tone, led him to a characteristic multilevel account of perception. Helmholtz’s account of the role of ‘unconscious inferences’ in perception makes him a natural precursor of research into implicit cognition in contemporary philosophy of mind and neuroscience. Before diving into that research, this chapter addresses the foundation of Helmholtz’s multilevel account of perception (section 1). This in turn will allow for a closer understanding of how Helmholtz employs physiology, generic concepts, and group theory in his analysis of representation of the external world (section 2). Section 3 will investigate the recent theory of ‘predictive processing’, a promising contemporary development of a broadly Helmholtzian approach. The chapter will conclude with a brief analysis of the explanatory and perspectival features of Helmholtz’s theory that distinguish it from contemporary approaches.