Abstract

The position Lehrer defends in this paper is an original and subtle attempt to penetrate some of the most fundamental issues with which serious epistemologists and philosophers of mind are concerned. Lehrer’s focus is the notion of a self-presenting state, a state that can be “apprehended through itself.” In these brief comments I’ll focus only on some of Lehrer’s claims. I’ll begin with what Lehrer calls the problems of representation and subjectivity for the doctrine that there exist self-presenting sates. In an attempt to enlist Hume as an ally against the doctrine of exemplarization, I’ll make one very brief historical observation about Hume and representation. I’ll then close with my primary concern about the concept of exemplarization, a concern rooted in the need to make a distinction between representation that is conventional and representation that is not.