An Externalist Approach to Inferred Experience and Perceptual Justification

This paper on cognitive penetrability examines Susanna Siegel's theory of inferred experience as it is presented in her book, The Rationality of Perception. I argue that certain aspects of her account contradict standard internalist inferences, and subsequently discuss a plausible externalist alternative. While preserving Siegel's inferential account of cognitive penetration, I develop a causal account of perceptual justification in an attempt to reconcile internalist and externalist intuitions about inferred experiences.