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Single Idea 3142

[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 5. Qualia / a. Nature of qualia ]

Full Idea

If we allow as a brute fact that certain mental states possess conscious qualitative content, there is still the problem of explaining why they possess one content rather than another (why does this stimulus look RED?).

Gist of Idea

Why qualia, and why this particular quale?

Source

Georges Rey (Contemporary Philosophy of Mind [1997], 2.1)

Book Ref

Rey,Georges: 'Contemporary Philosophy of Mind' [Blackwell 1997], p.43

A Reaction

This strikes me as the Really Hard Question. The Hard Question is merely 'why are creatures aware of their thoughts?' Personally I don't rule out finding a physical answer to the RHQ, and it is certainly not grounds for drifting into neo-dualism.

The 17 ideas with the same theme [what we should take qualia to be]:

3151 Descartes put thought at the centre of the mind problem, but we put sensation [Rey on Descartes]
5788 The use of 'qualia' seems to imply that consciousness and qualia are separate [Searle]
5808 Qualia are just the properties objects are represented as having [Dretske]
4894 I say Mary does not have new knowledge, but knows an old fact in a new way [Perry on Jackson]
4895 Is it unfair that physicalist knowledge can be written down, but dualist knowledge can't be [Perry on Jackson]
4886 Mary knows all the physical facts of seeing red, but experiencing it is new knowledge [Jackson]
3360 Are pains pure qualia, or do they motivate? [Kim]
8209 Part of the folk concept of qualia is what makes recognition and comparison possible [Lewis]
4873 What is it like to notice an uncomfortable position when you are asleep? [Dennett]
6624 Dennett denies the existence of qualia [Dennett, by Lowe]
2584 Lobotomised patients can cease to care about a pain [Block]
3138 Arithmetic and unconscious attitudes have no qualia [Rey]
3142 Why qualia, and why this particular quale? [Rey]
4106 If someone removes their glasses the content of experience remains, but the quality changes [Crane]
2389 Sometimes we don't notice our pains [Chalmers]
2419 Why should qualia fade during silicon replacement? [Chalmers]
4905 Normal babies seem to have overlapping sense experiences [Carter,R]