Magic, Illusion, and Alief: a Reply to Cavedon-Taylor.

The author responds to Dan Cavedon-Taylor's article "Magic, Alief and Make-Believe" which critiques his work on the cognitive mechanisms underlying the experience of magic. Topics include the author's defense of his use of Tamar Gendler's concept of alief to explain why magic performances evoke bewilderment even when audiences know they are witnessing tricks and his argument that neither belief nor imagination adequately accounts for the audience's reaction as belief would imply irrationality and imagination detracts from the tension between appearance and reality central to illusions.