Qualia Essays

The notion of qualia continues to be one of the most controversial debates in philosophy. Qualia are described as the phenomenal qualities accompanying experiences; we use qualia to express what something is like to us. This essay will evaluate Daniel Dennett’s position regarding qualia and it’s relation to consciousness. I will address Dennett’s reasoning and use controversial objections to support my position on validating the concept of qualia. C. I. Lewis first introduced qualia to philosophy

bats as an example of a subjective experience that cannot be understood outside of its specific point of view. Dennett takes aim at Nagel’s view of the problem of consciousness and attempts to show there is nothing special about these experiences or “Qualia”. His objections, while having some truth, ultimately conflate judgments about the conscious experience with the conscious experiences themselves. Nagel begins by outlining his

Mary learned the qualitative features of other beings’ experiences of red that her physical, quantitative knowledge could never have afforded her. She did not know the non-physical facts about other beings’ experiences while she was in the room, as qualia cannot be physically modeled. The mere fact that Mary’s knowledge increases disproves the physicalist objection. Lewis fails to discount Jackson’s knowledge

knowledge argument is incorrect regarding knowledge and physicalism, and it does not effectively disprove physicalism. His argument relies on the existence of qualia, and the notion that Mary learns something when she sees color, and not just that she applies her previous knowledge to a new situation. One problem with the concept of qualia is that it's not entirely proven. By our current understanding of neuroscience, experiences can be simplified to brain states, not necessarily anything different

states can be reduced to, or explained by, physical states of the brain. Jackson argues that if someone can discern complete physical proficiency of a phenomenon, they may not possess absolute knowledge of that phenomenon. The subjective experience of qualia, or what it feels like to experience a particular sensation cannot be diminished to physical states. Jackson uses Mary as a symbol to illustrate this subject. Mary is a brilliant scientist who has spent her entire life enclosed in a black-and-white

consciousness, the first of which is that of qualia. Qualia are the “raw feels” of an experience, that is, the experience of something beyond just seeing or feeling an object (2014). When you see a painting, for example, one experience much more than just the colors and their placement. One could feel happy or sad, or recognize symbolism, technique or history, all of which go far beyond the brain sensing color. Consciousness is made up of these qualia that aren’t defined by physical

Future with Churchland Qualia, “are experiential or subjective properties of certain mental states” (Jackson & Nagel Handout). Individuals express themselves through qualia, on a daily basis, even in early child development. For example, a child speaking to their mother would state, “mommy my tummy hurts.” Hence, the mother would know that her child is hurting. Qualia is a somewhat beneficial tool humans use to describe their current, specific mental state. Although qualia is a convenient method

Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a very controversial story. The story can be interpreted in a couple of different ways. This story is about a young man, Goodman Brown, who goes off one night into the woods, leaving his innocent wife, Faith, behind. To the reader, he does not identify a specific reason behind why he has to go this night and what exactly he is expecting to achieve by leaving into the woods. Although, it is easy to conclude that most likely the trip will take a dark toll

Consciousness With Philosophical Zombies David Chalmer talks about his different views on consciousness and tries to grasp the idea of explaining consciousness, where he uses philosophical zombies as an example. He uses philosophical zombies as an example of a being without consciousness and how it can exist, move, and act exactly like we would. Chalmer uses this to further emphasize the idea of consciousness and what it means to be fully conscious. Exploring the idea of people without consciousness

Internal Dimensions The internal dimensions of a theory act as guidelines to describe it and to enhance understanding of the approaches used to evolve it; they also help to identify gaps in the theory (Meleis, 2018). The first dimension is the rationale on which the theory is built (Meleis, 2018). The components of the theory of self-transcendence are united in a chain-link and are based on certain sets of relationships that are deduced from a small set of basic principles (Reed, 2008). The second

Hunter Zappia Prof. Jackson PHI 370 ID#:110906542 Prompt # 1 (Thomas Nagel: What is it like to be a bat) Word Count (not including main quote/citations): 492 In this essay I will discuss 3 important points that stem from Thomas Nagel’s paper “What is it like to be a bat.” The first thing I will do in this paper is define psychophysical reductionism and explain why Nagel is arguing against using such a straightforward psychophysical reduction. Secondly, I will explain how Nagel’s bat example ties

Frank Jackson illustrates in his paper, “Epiphenomenal Qualia”, that physicalism is not true based on his Fred example. Fred is a man who is like any one of us, except that he can see one more color than us, a new iteration of what we know as red. Fred is given tomatoes, and he sorts them into two piles, red1, the red that we can see, and red2, the color that looks like red to us, but is a completely different color to Fred. No matter what, Fred always sorts the tomatoes in this exact order every

How did Federico Garcia Lorca use the setting in Blood Wedding in conveying the themes of the play? The setting of the tragic play is in Andalucía, Spain during 1930s. It mainly inspired by a true story that happened in 1928 in a farming village of Nijar in the Spanish province of Almeria. There was a young woman named Francisca Canada Morales who tried to run away before the wedding commenced with her cousin, Francisco Montes Canada, to escape her wedding with a local man. In the play

The Chinese Room Argument was a thought experiment presented by an American philosopher by the name of John Searle. The Chinese room argument is a concept that refutes the idea of a strong artificial intelligence also known as Strong Al. Strong Ai is “the view that an appropriately programmed digital computer capable of passing the Turing test would thereby have mental states and a mind in the same sense in which human beings have mental states and a mind” (Searle, 2005). However the opposing view

Alex Garland in 2014, demonstrates the definition of a strong Artificial Intelligence and qualia through the process of AVA’s Turing Test by the main character Caleb. Specifically, the qualia and the consciousness of AVA continuously emerges as the plots, the interactions, and the escaping plan develops. The essay would analyze how AVA can be defined as a Strong Artificial Intelligence with consciousness and qualia, and how she passes the Turing Test and the Lovelace Test; however, not identified as

In the article Epiphenomenal Qualia, by Frank Jackson, he sets up a thought experiment in which scientist named Mary, who is highly educated in all that there is to know about the brain, is brought up in world that is solely black and white. So let’s imagine that there is a girl named Mary. Mary is an expert on color vision and a world renowned neurologist. However, she grew up in a room that was entirely in black and white, and she never has seen any colors. She learned from many black and white

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

Qualia, in the broader sense of the word, is understood as the qualitative properties of conscious experience or the phenomenal character of experience (i.e. what it is like subjectively to undergo the experience). The meaning of the term “qualia” will differ based on which philosopher’s views you support. In this paper, I will be focusing on Dennett’s views; there are other views on qualia but I will not be examining these views in my essay. Since centuries past, countless studies have attempted

consciousness, while also producing the subjective experiences—qualia—as a consequence. I will be defending the property dualist idea of epiphenomenalism. But what is epiphenomenalism in terms of

Metaphysical Issues of Consciousness: How do we define Consciousness? Consciousness in its very fundamental form can be defined as an inherent and intrinsic property of mind. And in fact no other aspect of mind is as intriguing, appealing and perplexing as consciousness, and our conscious experience of ‘self’ and everything else except the ‘self’. Both the notions evidently appear as totally complementary to each other. The very concept of ‘Consciousness’ is undoubtedly the principal issue to be