ABSTRACT
Aphenomenological description of an experience is a description thattells us how the things appear to a person who has it. Considerthese sentences, each of which uses the word “seems” in a different sense:
1 Kim seems less capable than she is. (Here, “seems” contrasts appearance to reality.)
2 It seems to Kim that she left the oven on. (Here, “seems” reports a shaky belief on Kim’s part.)
3 There seems to Kim to be a chair in front of her. (Here, “seems” expresses how Kim is “appeared to;” whether there is a chair there or not, it remains true that if things are as they perceptually appear to Kim, a chair is in front of her.)
So there are at least three senses of “seems” – a contrastive sense (in 1), an opinionative or belief-expressive sense (in 2), and an experiential and perceptual sense (in 3). Our concern is with the experiential, perceptual sense.
