On Perceiving Abs nces

Abstract

Can we really perceive absences, i.e., missing things? Sartre tells us that when he arrived late for his appointment at the café, he saw the absence of his friend Pierre. Is that really what he saw? Where was it, exactly? Why didn’t Sartre see the absence of other people who were not there? Why did other people who were there not see the absence of Pierre? The perception of absences gives rise to a host of conundrums and is constantly on the verge of conceptual confusion. Here I focus on the need to be clear about four sorts of distinctions: (i) the difference between perceiving an absence and perceiving something that is absent; (ii) the difference between perceiving an absence and an absence of perceiving; (iii) the difference between perceiving an absence and perceiving something as an absence; and (iv) the difference between perceiving an absence and perceiving that something is absent.

Nothingness or Not-Somethingness: A Paradox

“…To talk about an object and the lack of it simultaneously implies a sort of cognitive dissonance which has been discussed in various contexts (Priest, 2017(Priest, , 2019Rae, 2016) but bears an additional discussion. Varzi (2023) described cutting out a paper fish and then throwing the cut-out away; people were then asked what they saw. The answer was that people saw a fish.…”

“…According to the author, a person cannot see the hole that is present in the paper. According to the author, a hole may be described as the absence of something (Varzi, 2023) but it is not absent of all things. And, the absence is an object in itself.…”

“…The idea of trying to see simultaneously what is and is not present results in cognitive dissonance and a paradox. Varzi (2023) asked whether people are able to perceive an absence versus perceive something that is absent. Based on the research, Varzi discovered that perceiving something not present is easier than perceiving an absence.…”

“…In short, though one may talk about the "the being of nothingness" (Rae, 2016, p. 251), it may be easier to understand the idea of nothing as the sum of some things and as an object itself (Godínez, 2017). Such an explanation may offer an understanding as to why people cannot see the hole and a fish in the study by Varzi (2023).…”