On Phenomenal Character and Petri Dishes

Document Type

Article

Department or Administrative Unit

Philosophy and Religious Studies

Publication Date

7-20-2014

Abstract

In “New Troubles for the Qualia Freak,” Michael Tye argues that phenomenal character cannot be an intrinsic micro­physical property of experiences (or be necessitated by intrinsic microphysical properties) because this would entail that experience could occur in a chunk of tissue in a Petri dish. Laudably, Tye attempts to defend the latter claim rather than resting content with the counter-intuitiveness of the associated image. However, I show that his defense is problematic in several ways, and ultimately that it still amounts to no more than an appeal to the unargued intuition that experience could not occur in something small enough to fit in a Petri dish.

Comments

This article was originally published in Journal of Philosophical Research. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.

An accepted, pre-copyedited version can be found in PhilArchive.

Due to copyright restrictions, this article is not available for free download from ScholarWorks @ CWU.

Journal

Journal of Philosophical Research

Rights

© 2014 Philosophy Documentation Center

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