hairyfigment comments on Reality is weirdly normal - Less Wrong

33 Post author: RobbBB 25 August 2013 07:29PM

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Comment author: Juno_Watt 26 August 2013 10:31:17PM *  0 points [-]

That isn't a reductive explanaiton, becuase no attempt is made to show how Mary;s red quale breaks down into smaller component parts. In fact, it doens;t do much more than say subjectivity exists, and occurs in sync with brain states. As such, it is compatible with dualism.

Reading Wikipedia's entry on qualia, it seems to me that most of the arguments that qualia can't be explained by reductionism are powered by the same intuition that makes us think that you can give someone superpowers without changing them in any other way.

You mean p-zombie arguments?

But because qualia are a property of our brain's interaction with external stimuli, rather than a property of our bodies, the idea that you could change someone's qualia without changing their brain or the external world fails to pass our nonsense detector.

Whatever,tThat doesn;t actuall provide an explanation of qualia.

Comment author: hairyfigment 27 August 2013 12:36:01AM 0 points [-]