Appointments
 
Postdoctoral Fellow, Society of Fellows, Dartmouth College, 7/2023 --
 
Website
 
https://www.tiinarosenqvist.com
 
This page was last updated in July, 2023. Please see website for up-to-date information.
 
Academic Publications
 
[2] "Seeing with Color: Psychophysics and the Function of Color Vision." Synthese 202, 20 (2023).  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04226-y 
[1] "Color and Competence: A New View of Color Perception." In: Viejo, J.M., Sanjuán, M. (eds) Life and Mind. Interdisciplinary Evolution Research, Vol 8. Springer, Cham (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30304-3_5
  
Dissertation: Color, Competence, and Correctness
 
The mainstream view in contemporary analytic philosophy is that perception is primarily in the business of representing the mind-independent world as it is. This work explores an alternative conception: that the goal of perception is to guide successful action and that perceptions do not need to track mind-independent properties to play this action-guiding role. I focus on two types of perception: color perception and pain perception. I start with the former and advocate a pragmatist, empirically-guided approach which begins by inquiring into the function of color vision. After arguing that none of the extant philosophical views of color are satisfactory, I answer the function question by focusing on systematic color perceptual phenomena investigated by psychophysicists. I argue that the human color visual system is an enhancement system: that is, its job is to help us better discriminate, track, and recognize meaningful objects, properties, and relations. I then build on this idea using the notion of ‘competence-embeddedness.’ I propose that color vision is embedded in a network of competences: the aim of color vision is to help organisms manifest these competences, and color experiences are correct when they result from competence-enhancing processing. The framework is explanatorily robust. For example, it allows me to conceptualize many textbook color illusions as special cases of successful color perception where the demands of the relevant competences clash. Finally, I use the notion of ‘competence-embeddedness’ to develop a new account of pain. I argue that the pain system is not a bodily disturbance detector, but a sophisticated, context-responsive security system whose primary goal is to help organisms manifest important behavioral and cognitive competences. 
 
Selected Awards
 
The American-Scandinavian Foundation (AFS) Fellowship, 2023-2024. $20,000. (awarded, declined)
 
Kone Foundation Research Grant (Finland), 2022-2023. €30,000.
 
Selected Talks and Presentations
 
"Perceptual Competences and the Primary/Secondary Quality Distinction" International Society for the Philosophy of the Sciences of the Mind (ISPSM) Webconference. 2023. 
 
"Perceptual Competences and the Primary/Secondary Quality Distinction" Society for Philosophy and Psychology (SPP) Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. 2023.
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"Pain is not a Bodily Disturbance Detector" Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (SSPP) Annual Conference, Louisville, KY, USA. 2023.
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"Pain is not a Bodily Disturbance Detector" Philosophy of Biology and Cognitive Sciences (PBCS) XI, University of Salamanca-ECyT, Spain. 2022.
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“Seeing with Color: Insights from Psychophysics” The 3rd Context, Cognition and Communication Conference: Varieties of Meaning and Content, University of Warsaw, Poland. 2022.
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“Seeing with Color: Insights from Psychophysics" The 3rd Joint Conference of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology (SPP) and the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology (ESPP), University of Milan, Italy. 2022.
 
“Seeing with Color: Insights from Psychophysics” Language, Culture and Mind 9: Sensory Experience and Communication, University of Almería, Spain. 2022
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"What (on Earth) Are Color Visual Systems Doing?" Virtual Vision Futures, York University, Canada. 2021 (delivered virtually).
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"Color Illusions and the "Competence-Embeddedness" of Color Perception" Philosophy of Biology and Cognitive Sciences (PBCS) X, Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. 2021 (delivered virtually).
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“Philosophy of Color: Lessons from Neuroscience?” 6th Annual Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (SCAN) Retreat, University of Pennsylvania, USA. 2020.
 
Conferences/Events Organized
 
5th MAP-Penn Conference: Philosophy of Race (2021): https://tiinarosenqvist.wixsite.com/map-penn
 
6th MAP-Penn Conference: Philosophy of Disability and Illness (2022): https://tiinarosenqvist.wixsite.com/map-penn-disability
 
MAP-Penn Summer Colloquium on Philosophy of Disability and Illness (2022): https://tiinarosenqvist.wixsite.com/mappennsummer
 
Penn Philosophy Teaching Workshop on Disability Inclusion and Accessibility (2022)
 
7th MAP-Penn Conference: Climate Justice (2023): https://tiinarosenqvist.wixsite.com/climatejustice
 
MAP-Penn Visiting Speaker: Polaris Koi (2023): https://tiinarosenqvist.wixsite.com/map-penn-guests