(September 8, 2021 at 11:44 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote: It's a thought experiment. We're simply being asked to conceive of a person who does not have a conscious experience. It's not entirely implausible. Much of our social interaction (facial expressions, etc.) happen largely on an unconscious level. We may "make a face on purpose" or "be aware of the face we're making" but much of the time we are not.
The brain is a huge information feedback system. Most of it operates below conscious awareness. All we're being asked to conceive of (for sake of the thought experiment) is that the rest of the Freudian iceberg is also submerged.
To an extant. The P-Zombie requires that consciousness be epiphenomenal. If it's not, then P-Zombies can't exist in a way comparable to the way we exist.