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Single Idea 4873

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

Full Idea

What is it like to notice, while sound asleep, that your left arm has become twisted into a position in which it is putting undue strain on your left shoulder? Like nothing.

Gist of Idea

What is it like to notice an uncomfortable position when you are asleep?

Source

Daniel C. Dennett (Kinds of Minds [1996], Ch.1)

Book Ref

Dennett,Daniel C.: 'Kinds of Minds' [Phoenix 1997], p.17


A Reaction

A nice question, and all part of Dennett's accurate campaign to show that consciousness is not an all-or-nothing thing. As when we are barely aware of driving, innumerable things happen in the shadowy corners of thought.


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

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