more on this theme     |     more from this thinker


Single Idea 5788

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

Full Idea

I am hesitant to use the word 'quale/qualia', because it gives the impression that there are two separate phenomena, consciousness and qualia.

Gist of Idea

The use of 'qualia' seems to imply that consciousness and qualia are separate

Source

John Searle (The Mystery of Consciousness [1997], Ch.1)

Book Ref

Searle,John R.: 'The Mystery of Consciousness' [Granta 1997], p.8


A Reaction

He is trying to resist going back to 'sense-data', sitting uneasily between reality and our experience of it. Personally I am quite happy with qualia as an aspect of consciousness - just as I am happy with consciousness as an 'aspect' of brain.


The 13 ideas from 'The Mystery of Consciousness'

A property is 'emergent' if it is caused by elements of a system, when the elements lack the property [Searle]
A system is either conscious or it isn't, though the intensity varies a lot [Searle]
The use of 'qualia' seems to imply that consciousness and qualia are separate [Searle]
I now think syntax is not in the physics, but in the eye of the beholder [Searle]
There is non-event causation between mind and brain, as between a table and its solidity [Searle]
Explanation of how we unify our mental stimuli into a single experience is the 'binding problem' [Searle]
Reduction is either by elimination, or by explanation [Searle]
Consciousness has a first-person ontology, which only exists from a subjective viewpoint [Searle]
Eliminative reduction needs a gap between appearance and reality, as in sunsets [Searle]
Consciousness has a first-person ontology, so it cannot be reduced without omitting something [Searle]
If tree rings contain information about age, then age contains information about rings [Searle]
The pattern of molecules in the sea is much more complex than the complexity of brain neurons [Searle]
There isn't one consciousness (information-processing) which can be investigated, and another (phenomenal) which can't [Searle]