Perceptual Experience and Cognitive Penetrability

This paper starts by distinguishing three views about the phenomenal character of perceptual experience. 'Low-level theorists' argue that perceptual experience is reducible to the experience of low-level properties (textures, shapes, colors), 'high-level theorists' argue that we have perceptual experiences of high-level properties (functional properties, causal relations, etc.), while 'disunified view theorists' argue that perceptual seemings can present high-level properties. The paper explores how cognitive states can penetrate perceptual experience and provides an interpretation of cognitive penetration that offers some support for the high-level view.