An Outline of a Theory of Affordances

A theory of affordances is outlined according to which affordances are relations be-tween the abilities of animals and features of the environment. As relations, affordances are both real and perceivable but are not properties of either the environ-ment or the animal. I argue that this theory has advantages over extant theories of affordances and briefly discuss the relations among affordances and niches, perceivers, and events. The primary difference between direct and inferential theories of perception con-cerns the location of perceptual content, the meaning of our perceptions. In infer-ential theories of perception, these meanings arise inside animals, based on their interactions with the physical…