Comparing Jackson And Nagel's Arguments Against Physicalism

Physicalism is the concept that each existing thing is no more or less than its physical assets1. Many philosophers are unsatisfied with Physicalism’s arguments as it does not account for the individual’s subjective thoughts and experiences. Both Frank Jackson and Thomas Nagel take the stance that people do have subjective experiences, that humans do not conform to merely physical structures. Jackson and Nagel perform their own thought experiments to question Physicalism. In his article Epiphenomenal Qualia, Jackson reasons against Physicalism through his Knowledge Argument by using his example of Mary the neurophysiologist. Similarly, Nagel provides respectable arguments against the theory of Physicalism where he draws upon the idea of ‘What

He demonstrates this through The Knowledge Argument. He uses the example of Mary the neuroscientist who has lived in a black and white room her whole life. She studies colour and the brain and knows everything there is to know about colour, including the way it is processed in the brain. However, she has never experienced seeing colour herself. Jackson explains that Physicalists would say that Mary’s knowledge regarding colour is complete. He continues his thought experiment by postulating that one day Mary’s door is opened, and she goes outside into the world of full colour. Jackson then asks if Mary will “learn anything [from her colour experience] or not”3(p130). Jackson argues that she will undeniably learn something new about colour. She will learn how it feels to perceive and experience colour, something which is unique to every person, a concept called qualia. Qualia are the introspective qualities that make up the character of experiences4. It is irrefutably clear that Mary gained new knowledge when she saw colour for the first time and has learnt what it is ‘like’ to experience colour. Therefore, Jackson claims that her knowledge was previously incomplete and thus, “Physicalism is incomplete” 3(p130). Jackson has revealed that Physicalists do not account for the subjective quality of experience and mental states. Hence, Physicalism cannot be absolutely true since they ignore this important