Structural Phenomenal Properties

The usual considerations about high-level properties perception focus on contents of perceptual experiences. While different types of high-level properties are considered, such as category-related, causal, emotional, and aesthetic, they are all interpreted as elements of experiential content. This paper introduces a new category of perceptual properties—structural phenomenal properties—by utilizing the important distinction between experiential contents and experiential structures. It is argued that while these are not content-properties, some of them have characteristics typical of high-level content properties. In particular, three structural phenomenal properties related to the visual field will be considered: the boundedness of the visual field, its feature-filled character, and its oriented character. It is argued that, similarly to typical high-level properties, their experiential presence does not consist in the presence of an arrangement of low-level properties, but they do supervene on some low-level properties.