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Full Idea
Materialists identify pain with the firing of nociceptive-specific neurons in the parietal cortex. Even so, Levine argues, we will still lack any explanation of why nociceptive-specific neurons yield pain.
Gist of Idea
Even if we identify pain with neural events, we can't explain why those neurons cause that feeling
Source
report of Joseph Levine (Purple Haze [2001]) by David Papineau - Thinking about Consciousness 5.1
Book Ref
Papineau,David: 'Thinking about Consciousness' [OUP 2004], p.141
A Reaction
[Proposed by Levine in 1983] I don't think we need to instantly go dualist when faced with this, but we may all eventually have to concede a bit of mysterianism. The explanation may be holistic (and hence hopelessly complex).
7876 | Even if we identify pain with neural events, we can't explain why those neurons cause that feeling [Levine, by Papineau] |
7877 | Only phenomenal states have an explanatory gap; water is fully explained by H2O [Levine, by Papineau] |
7878 | Materialism won't explain phenomenal properties, because the latter aren't seen in causal roles [Papineau on Levine] |