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Single Idea 3151

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

Full Idea

Descartes confined his dualism to problems of reason and language. Sensation and even imagination seemed to him physically unproblematic. Nowadays it is the reverse: thinking seems easy - but feeling?

Gist of Idea

Descartes put thought at the centre of the mind problem, but we put sensation

Source

comment on René Descartes (Meditations [1641], 2) by Georges Rey - Contemporary Philosophy of Mind 2 n16

Book Ref

Rey,Georges: 'Contemporary Philosophy of Mind' [Blackwell 1997], p.67

A Reaction

Thinking only 'seems easy' if it can be done without consciousness, and that is beginning to look like a dubious assumption. The most interesting and promising area is the borderline between a chess-playing machine and a human chess player.

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]