RE: Monist vs. Dualist Experiment?
October 29, 2013 at 7:20 am
(This post was last modified: October 29, 2013 at 7:24 am by bennyboy.)
(October 29, 2013 at 7:13 am)apophenia Wrote:Excellent point. Since we're doing this, why don't they also use physical or scientific experiments to show that we're not in the Matrix, or in the Mind of God? Why don't they prove that the entire universe and everything in it isn't a collection of ideas which manifest as things, rather than things which we symbolize into ideas?(October 29, 2013 at 7:03 am)bennyboy Wrote: Maybe. But my memory involves the actual experience of redness, not just the plugging in of the "700nm" figure into a behavioral algorithm.
The qualia idea is the only one that is NOT made up. Every observation we make must be experienced by us before we can encode it into a system of ideas. All learning, all communication: all qualia. It's just a word for talking about actual experience of things, as opposed to just talking about them.
How do you know that you 'experience' it? Does someone put something near your head and measure 'experiencing' in progress? And exactly what do you mean by 'experiencing', specifically? What is it? I've got a counter proposal to the OP. Can the dualists provide a physical or scientific experiment that would prove that you are not a zombie? If so, what is it, and how does it demonstrate this 'experience' which you've yet to describe and define?
(October 29, 2013 at 7:14 am)pocaracas Wrote: Ahh.... I think I'm starting to get it...Are you playing Socrates with me? Can't tell.
qualia is the internal emotional response to any given experience/sensation, is that right?
Qualia are about actual experience, as opposed to processing the environment as data.