A key distinction in McLuhan's thought, worked through in dialogue 03 by way of the hunter analogy . Percepts are not something we actively do, nor a personal prior state, nor "ahead of concepts in point of time" — they are what people have already seen (and could have seen): the common heritage. Cameron's claim is that most readers misunderstand percepts in McLuhan, and that the domain of media is itself perceptual, not conceptual.
Across the dialogues
Lays out percepts vs. concepts through the hunter analogy
Percepts aren't something we do, nor prior to concepts in time — they are what people have already seen, and what they could have seen.
"Percepts are what people have already seen. And in fact includes maybe what they didn't already see, but they could have seen."
The hunter analogy — tracking works not by concept (there is no formula for a footprint) but by percept: flipping through all the ways the sign has been seen.
"He's flipping over in his mind all of the different ways in which this has been seen."
Percepts belong to no individual — they are the common heritage, the common being of human beings, not the subject's private possession.
"They are the common heritage."
In "A Garbage Apocalypse" (1970), addressing conceptualist art critics, McLuhan insisted communication involves a post-concept situation.
"He's blatantly saying that you've got to realize there's something in communication that involves a post-concept situation."
The question of media is self-referential — and that self-referentiality lives in the domain of percepts, not concepts.
"Unless you've got your media right, you're never going to get your media right."
Bob's gloss via Eliot's 1919 Dante essay, which McLuhan cited repeatedly — poetry communicates before understanding: perception precedes conception.
"Poetry communicates before understanding."
Connections
McLuhan's percept/concept distinction — worked through the hunter analogy; percepts are prior to and irreducible to concepts.
Percepts are light through — incoming, the common heritage — not the subject's light on production.