MG: 'It's really quite obvious in retrospect - physical
> properties involve energy, mathematical properties involve knowledge
> (meaningful patterns). Old David Chalmers was right about this one
> (see his 'property dualism'). The two properties just ain't the same
> and no amount of semantic trickery is going to reduce one to the
> other.'
MP: It is not semantic trickery to assert that a _translation_
can be possible however. This is the problem when people talk
and get hot under the collar about 'identity theory'. At its
simplest level it is the difference between 1PV and 3PV. 3PV
observation and analysis _may_ eventually turn up with objective
criteria that establish universally consistent and reliable
correlation between certain brain processes and certain reported
phenomenal experiences - things like itching on certain parts of
the body, "hearing music", "seeing bright colours", etc. I am
not sure about experiencing redness per se, although that is not
ruled out. It is conceivable that this type of facility could be
useful in diagnosing locked-in consciousness.
The key concept of course is _correlation_. Accurately
*identifying* certain characteristic brain processes - in both
relevant senses of identifying - is almost certainly what the
future holds for us. Is this what you mean by *reducing* the
experience though? If so I think it is a 'red herring'; being
able to locate and accurately describe brain processes from/in
3PV cannot thereby diminish or encompass the experience of what
it is like to be that process.
NB: "Old Chalmers ... " --- He's not THAT old, surely!
Regards
Mark Peaty CDES
mpeaty.domain.name.hidden
http://www.arach.net.au/~mpeaty/
marc.geddes.domain.name.hidden wrote:
>
>
> On Aug 19, 12:26 am, "Stathis Papaioannou" <stath....domain.name.hidden> wrote:
>
>> This all makes sense if you are referring to the values of a
>> particular entity. Objectively, the entity has certain values and we
>> can use empirical means to determine what these values are. However,
>> if I like red and you like blue, how do we decide which colour is
>> objectively better?
>
> No, that's not what I'm referring to. I'm referring to 'Abstract
> Universals' - Platonic Ideals that all observers with complete
> information would agree with.
>
> "What they have to be are inert EXPLANATORY PRINCIPLES, taking the
> form: 'Beauty has abstract properties A B C D E F G'. 'Liberty has
> abstract properties A B C D E F G' etc etc. None the less, as
> explained, these abstract specifications would still be amenable to
> indirect empirical testing to the extent that they could be used to
> predict agent emotional reactions to social events."
>
>
>
>> You could make a similar claim for the abstract quality "redness",
>> which is associated with light of a certain wavelength but is not the
>> same thing as it. But it doesn't seem right to me to consider
>> "redness" as having a separate objective existence of its own; it's
>> just a name we apply to a physical phenomenon.
>
> I don't agree that 'redness is just a name we apply to a physical
> phenomenon' (although I agree with you its not an objectively existing
> primative). I thought about these issues hard out for a long long
> long long long long LONG time before finally nailing 'em.
> Unfortunately the answers are not something I easily explain in short
> sentences on Internet messageboards ;)
>
> 'redness' is not a *thing* it's a *process* - as a phenomenal
> (subjective) quality it's a *mathematical* property associated with
> the running of an algorithm (or computation) . But this is NOT a
> *physical* property. The mathematical property (redness) is *attached
> to* (resides in, is dependent upon) the physical substrate
> implementing the algorithm giving rise to the subjective experience ,
> but the mathematical property *per se* is not physical. It's
> abstract. It's really quite obvious in retrospect - physical
> properties involve energy, mathematical properties involve knowledge
> (meaningful patterns). Old David Chalmers was right about this one
> (see his 'property dualism'). The two properties just ain't the same
> and no amount of semantic trickery is going to reduce one to the
> other.
>
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Received on Sun Aug 19 2007 - 11:27:08 PDT