Drs. Deutsch and
Mallon
Lecture 8, The
anti-materialist thought experiments
07/10/02
Some review:
1. Dualism faces
serious difficulties stemming from (among other things) the fact of mind-body
causation.
(Things to know:
a. What is dualism and what
motivates it? b. What are the
difficulties for dualism stemming from M/B causation (and what are its other
problems)?
2. But the
varieties of materialism face their own difficulties.
(Things to know:
a. What is materialism, what
motivates it, and what are its varieties? b.
What are the problems with the various versions of materialism:
type-materialism, token-materialism, supervenience, and functionalism?)
More problems for materialism: the new
wave of anti-materialist arguments:
Background: Recent philosophy of mind has been
preoccupied by questions concerning the nature of phenomenal consciousness,
i.e. with question concerning the nature of those mental states such that there is something it is like to be in
them (the sensations).
The
reasons for this:
a.
Many philosophers are satisfied with a functionalist/materialist account of the
propositional attitudes.
b.
But such an account seems inadequate when it comes to the feel or qualitative character
of the sensations. Functionalist
accounts of the sensations seem to “leave out” their characteristic feel. This seeming inadequacy has led to a revival
of dualism—at least with respect to the sensations—and to an outbreak of new
arguments that seem to show that not just functionalism, but no variety of
materialism can account for phenomenal consciousness.
P1. Mary (before
her escape) knows everything physical
there is to know about seeing red.
P2. Mary (before
her escape) does not know everything there is to know about seeing red because
she learns something about it after escaping.
Therefore,
C. Materialism
is false (and property dualism is true).
Materialist
replies to the Knowledge Argument:
1. Deny that Mary learns something
new.
2.
The ability reply: Mary gain know-how, or an ability; she does not acquire knowledge of new facts.
3.
The mode of presentation reply: Mary
gains a new mode of presentation for a fact she already knew--but no new facts
are learned.
4.
Deny that it’s possible for Mary to learn all of the physical facts about
seeing red.