Physicalism is the philosophical idea that mental states are just physical states meaning that only what is physical is real so totally disregarding mental ideals. In the case of the claim that ‘someone could know all the physical facts about seeing red and yet learn something new when they see red for the first time’ shows that physicalism is false as it assumes that one just learned a new fact when instead developed a new type of consciousness. This is the very case of the thought experiment called ‘The Mary Argument’, which will be discussed through the paper, as it demonstrates the mind-body problem in terms of consciousness whilst disregarding physicalism. In addition to this, the Mary Argument opens a variety of hypotheses and arguments
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The big book of science which contains every physical fact about colour vision, must be incomplete as some of the facts i.e. seeing red are non-physical. Therefore, showing that physicalism is false. Frank Jackson agrees with this as he stated that it was inescapable that her previous knowledge was incomplete, but because she had all the physical information, physicalism has to be false as he believed that there needed to be more facts …show more content…
The strength of the knowledge argument goes unquestioned that ability relates to consciousness and how conscious simply cannot be defined by physicalists as it goes against what they stand for, thus showing that physicalism is false.
WORD COUNT: 1497
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jackson, Frank. “Epiphenomenal Qualia.” The Philosophical Quarterly (1950-), vol. 32, no. 127, 1982, pp. 127–136. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2960077.
Nagel, Thomas. “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” The Philosophical Review, vol. 83, no. 4, 1974, pp. 435–450. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2183914.
Oxford Dictionaries | English. (2017). consciousness | Definition of consciousness in English by Oxford Dictionaries. [online] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/consciousness [Accessed 12 Dec. 2017].
Papineau, David. “What Exactly is the Explanatory Gap” Philosophia (2011) 39: 5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-010-9273-6
Reality Sandwich. (2017). Physicalism: A False View of the World - Reality Sandwich. [online] Available at: http://realitysandwich.com/131913/physicalism_false_view_world/ [Accessed 12 Dec.
The big book of science which contains every physical fact about colour vision, must be incomplete as some of the facts i.e. seeing red are non-physical. Therefore, showing that physicalism is false. Frank Jackson agrees with this as he stated that it was inescapable that her previous knowledge was incomplete, but because she had all the physical information, physicalism has to be false as he believed that there needed to be more facts …show more content…
The strength of the knowledge argument goes unquestioned that ability relates to consciousness and how conscious simply cannot be defined by physicalists as it goes against what they stand for, thus showing that physicalism is false.
WORD COUNT: 1497
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jackson, Frank. “Epiphenomenal Qualia.” The Philosophical Quarterly (1950-), vol. 32, no. 127, 1982, pp. 127–136. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2960077.
Nagel, Thomas. “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” The Philosophical Review, vol. 83, no. 4, 1974, pp. 435–450. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2183914.
Oxford Dictionaries | English. (2017). consciousness | Definition of consciousness in English by Oxford Dictionaries. [online] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/consciousness [Accessed 12 Dec. 2017].
Papineau, David. “What Exactly is the Explanatory Gap” Philosophia (2011) 39: 5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-010-9273-6
Reality Sandwich. (2017). Physicalism: A False View of the World - Reality Sandwich. [online] Available at: http://realitysandwich.com/131913/physicalism_false_view_world/ [Accessed 12 Dec.