According to Roderick Chisholm, one distinctive characteristic of mental phenomena is that they relate to their objects under an aspect': Lois Lane admires the one object that is both Superman and Clark Kent as Superman but not as Clark Kent. This paper argues that visual attention exhibits no such characteristic. This suggests that attention is an exceptional mental phenomenon, and understanding it may provide insight into mind-body or mind-world relations.

Published as:Engelhardt, Jeff. Visual Transparency. Teorema 28, no. 1 (2009): 5-20. For more information on the published version, visit Teorema's Website.

Jeff Engelhardt is a professor of Philosophy at Dickinson College.

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