Retinal Images and Object Files: Towards Empirically Evaluating Philosophical Accounts of Visual Perspective

According to an influential philosophical view I call “the relational properties view” (RPV), “perspectival” properties, such as the elliptical appearance of a tilted coin, are relational properties of external objects. Philosophers have assessed this view on the basis of phenomenological, epistemological or other purely philosophical considerations. My aim in this paper is to examine whether it is possible to evaluate RPV empirically. In the first, negative part of the paper I consider and reject a certain tempting way of doing so. In the second, positive part of the paper I suggest a novel way of evaluating RPV empirically, relying on the influential object files framework.