2qualia arguments 1
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File name: 2 qualia arguments Date: 02:28:24 AM ...03/10/09
Conscious thinking is a different kind of thinking from unconsciousness thinking or problem solving – survival skills why conscious because consciousness gives an advantage that not being conscious does not give us. Consciousness gives us useful knowledge that not being consciousness does not. Consciousness is a higher level of awareness. It seems then that there can be many levels of consciousness below and above the ones that we currently experience.
The zombie and knowledge anti physicalists arguments for qualia are at odds with each other. First the knowledge argument says that qualia contains useful information that can be gathered in no other way. If there then is a zombie he will not contain this kind of knowledge that exists about consciousness or qualia a zombie will not be able to function exactly like a non zombie because he will not have the qualia knowledge that the non zombie has so there will be a divergence in behavior eventually but since there is no divergence they must have qualia knowledge
If qualia gives us information that we can not have any other way then there is a reason that we are conscious – its to give us more information thus the ability to survive better. Show an example of this kind of information
What kind of prediction or thinking can we have with qualia that we can not have if we do not have consciousness?
There is an infinite amount of information to know about the color read or how it effect conscious systems so in the knowledge argument against the physicalists that mary knows everything about the color red is false because she can never know every physical thing about the color red. She has a very limited perspective if she had all physical knowledge of the qualia color red she would know how to produce that qualia inside herself in many different ways and she would be able to create the after effect of that particular experience with out even having expereinced that qualia. So that when she does experience it for the first time she will in fact know what it is to have expereinced that experience with out ever having actually expereinced it.