Aliens versus Materialists (Part I)

The following is a science fiction about consciousness in which I’ve twisted a few counterfactual knobs to make things tough for the materialist. In this attempted reductio, I assume physicalism is the case, and generate a putatively serious objection. It is the only line of thought that has recently given me serious worries as a neurophile, so I am curious what others think.

Braintrust

Patricia Churchland’s new book Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality is now out. I haven’t read it yet, but I know she has been talking about and researching this topic for a long time. I expect it to be a fun, interesting read. Her basic thesis is that morality …

Examples of successful conceivability arguments?

I’ve been reading over Chalmers’ conceivability/possibility arguments against materialist theories of mind. For those that don’t remember, his argument is: 1. We can conceive of zombies. 2. Conceivability implies logical possibility. 3. Therefore, zombies are logically possible. 4. If zombies are logically possible, then physicalism is false. 5. Therefore, physicalism …

References for semantic argument against identity theory?

There is a standard story about the emergence of the identity theory. Namely, before (say) 1956, because the concept of an experience was not synonymous with the concept of a brain state, we knew a priori that experiences could not be brain states. Let’s call this the semantic argument against …

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