The Epistemic Significance of High-Level Content and Perceptual Proofs

Abstract This chapter investigates the epistemology of perceptual experiences with so-called high-level content, especially high-level normative content. It argues that while such experiences may present normative properties directly, they do not provide foundational justification. This is due to the dependency of the justification for high-level content on the justification for lower-level content. This dependency rules out a simple form of foundationalism but a more complicated one is near to hand. A key virtue of this view is its ability to resolve a long-standing puzzle in the epistemology of aesthetics about the rational merits of art criticism. The chapter offers a model of the epistemology of normative perception that reveals its structural complexities.