(November 24, 2013 at 7:38 pm)bennyboy Wrote: What experiment could you do to distinguish between monistm and dualism? Well, for one, you could look to see if the same physical circumstances always creates qualia, rather than just seeming to. The problem is that your stated way of establishing whether a system has qualia is to decide if it seems to.
You could also look to see if qualia can exist WITHOUT those physical circumstances-- but wait, no you can't, because science is founded exclusively on physical observations. You don't get to use a system which necessarily ASSUMES physical monism to ESTABLISH physical monism, because the entire process already begs the question.
Still not seeing a problem here.
The behavior "seems" to indicate qualia the same way video of 9/11 "seems" to indicate the occurrence of the event - that is, they are evidence for the respective phenomena. So, the existence of qualia has been established.
Further, the explanation given for that qualia is that it is a self-referential form of data-processing - something that cannot occur absent a physical system. The experiments in neuroscience so far support this conclusion.
You are the one trying to argue against this position by suggesting qualia to be a property of all matter or qualia existing without matter - so you are the one who has to provide evidence.
