Question 8; Can the problem of consciousness be solved?

26 important questions on Question 8; Can the problem of consciousness be solved?

What do many argumetns about qualia purport show?

That there is either an epistemological or both an ontological and epistemological gap in our explanation as to how qualia fit into the physical world.

Why is it impossible to explain qualia in terms of physical properties.

There are two reasons.
1. Homo sapiens is not equipped with the appropriate cognitive capacities, which is why we have an epistemological gap in our explanation.
2.  The world is very different from the way physicalists think it is: physicalism is false, and thus any physicalistic theory of consciousness will be unable to eplain how qualia fit into the world.

What is Thomas Nagels view?

That ther eis something wrong with our phyisicalistic explanation of phenomenal consciousness. We cannot know what it is like to be someone else: only you know what it is like to be you because phenomenal experiences are subjective.
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Maybe we are in a position with respect to the mind an the brain that is similar to that of the ancient Greeks with respect to matter and energy. What does this mean?

We simply do not have the proper concepts to understand the connection of the mind and the brain yet.

Why is Nagel's argument not fatal for physicalism?

Since the epistemological problem might either rise from our inability to see how physicalism could be true, or from the fact that physicalism actually is an incorrect view of the world.

With which argument that purported to show that there are actually non-phyisical facts in the world and that therefore physicalism has to be incorrect came Frank Jackson up?

With the knowledge argument, which argues that if physicalism is right, there are no non-physical facts, because Mary gains knowledge about qualia if she actually gains knowledge about what yellow looks like.

What is an intuition pump?

A short story that is designed to flush out an intuition, but if such a story is told in the right way, it might push you towards the wrong intuition.

Why is the knowledge arument not fatal for physicalism?

Because it is based on an intuition that is possible wrong and that the demand of this arugment to a theory of the phenomenal mind is too harsh.

What are the two objections that can be raised against Chalmers' argument against physicalism?

1. The existence of zombies might be impossible and Chalmers argues that it is the task of his opponents to show that zombies do not exist, but if someone makes a strange claim that goes against everything science has discovered, then it it not the opponent's task to show that it is impossible.
2. Chalmers has designed his thought experiment in such a fashion, that if you believe it, you have already accepted dualism.

Why is the zombie intuition pump so imporant?

1. THose who encounter this experiment for the first time have really strong intuitions that zombies cannot exist, so even though it is a thought experiment that is meant to flush out a dualist intuition, it flushes out just the opposite intuition in many cases, even for dualists.
2. Even though the burden of proof lies with Chalmers and not his opponents, it could also be viewed as a challenge to the materialists to explain why zombies are conceivable but not possible.

Why does it seem that there is no causal role for the phenomenal mind?

All causal relations can be explained in purely neurological terms.

What is property dualism?

THe view that mental and physical stats an events might not be different substances, but different properties.

Why do we need to accept the mind-body supervenience thesis according to Jaegwon Kim?

In the mind-body supervenience thesis, any physical duplication of an individual has to be a mental duplicate as well.

Why does Chalmers disagree with Jaegwon Kim?

He thinks that it is actually possible that we could have a physical duplicate of the entire universe in which there is no phenomenal consciousness at all.

What is logical supervenience?

When you have lower-level properties and their relations, it is necessary that you also have the higher order properties.

What is natural supervenience?

If some supervenient properties are naturally supervenient on other basic properties, then it could be the case that there is another world in which the basic properties are present, but where the supervenient properties are absent.

Why should we change science according to Chalmers?

Because at this moment science only accepts physical properties and those that logically supervene on them.

How should we change science?

We have to accept that there are phenomenal properties in our world that are not physical. Therse properties are fundamental.

What is the double-aspect principle?

Wherever there is physical information in our universe there is also phenomenal information.

What does it mean that the phenomenal mind is an epiphenomenon according to Chalmers?

That it has not causal efficacy whatsoever.

What does Colin McGinn think about physicalism?

He believes that a naturalistic, scientific theory of consciousness should be possible, but that humans are just not smart enough to understand how physicalism can be true because our cognitive capacities are limited.

Which tow methods of investigating th emind-body relationship do we have according to McGinn?

1. Introspection: starts with the mind.
2. Neuroscience: starts with the brain.

Is McGinn's argument fatel to physicalism?

No, but it looks like it is fatel to our efforts to actually find the right physicalist theory and understand it.

What is the natural method according to Owen Flanagan?

He claims that solving the mind-body problem is possible if we use an interdisciplinary method and not any one particular method in isolation.

What do we need to do in order to learn about the mind according to Flanagan?

We have to take reports from humans about what they experience seriously and we also have to take into account what psychologists have to say and what neurologists have discovered.

Why do we need to combine different disciplines?

SO we can find out what the precise relations between mental, and the embodied and embedded brain states are.

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