Property Dualism Essay

In philosophy, property dualism is the idea that mental properties are different types of properties than physical ones. The need for a distinction between mental properties and physical properties largely stems from the concept of qualia. Qualia can be used to describe the sensations of taste, smell, or sight etc. by verbally describing what it is like to have those experiences. However, simply describing the physical properties of the objects creating these sensations is insufficient to explain how these qualia occur. For example, naming the physical properties of a lollipop, the chemicals involved in creating one, is not enough for someone to understand what they will experience when they taste a lollipop for the first time. Therefore, the

In this thought experiment, it is conceived that it is possible for two people with identical physical properties to look at the same object and have inverted color qualia. For example, in the experiment, two people look at the same object and see opposite colors, however, because they were both socialized to look at objects of that color and call them green, the two people always call objects of that color green, even though they are having different qualia experiences when they look at that color. The thought experiments modal argument claims that since these people with identical physical properties could have inverted qualia, the qualia they have are not simply due to the physical properties of their bodies and must be due to properties of the mind. A physicalist would criticize this argument by claiming that having an inverted spectrum is impossible. They would state that by understanding the wavelength of light emitted from an object and confirming that the anatomy of the photoreceptors and brains of the two people are identical then they can confirm they are having the same experience when looking at the object. Even by observing the way the brain is activated by looking at the colors would indicate that the qualia of the people are the same. However, the physicalist argument can’t completely explain how all of these variables come together to create qualia in human