PSEUDONORMAL VISION: AN ACTUAL CASE OF
QUALIA INVERSION?
Martine Nida-Rümelin
TYPES OF MATERIALISM
➤
physicalism: mental states are brain states
➤
➤
behaviourism: mental states are behavioural dispositions
➤
➤
“Pain is c-fiber firing”: a posteriori scientific discovery
“Pain is a disposition to wince, etc.”: an a priori analytic truth
functionalism (aka Causal Theory): mental states are functional
states
➤
Pain is a functional state defined by its relations to inputs,
outputs, and other mental states.
➤
“Pain causes wincing, behaviour that agent believes will
alleviate pain, etc.” is an a priori analytic truth (according to
“conceptual functionalism”)
insert nickel
S1
S2
go to S2
dispense
soda, go to
S1
dispense
dispense
soda and
insert dime soda, stay in
nickel, go to
S1
S1
Functional states of a vending
machine
SUPERVENIENCE
➤
➤
original Picasso vs. perfect
forgery:
➤
equally beautiful?
➤
equally valuable?
Beauty supervenes on placement of
paint on canvas.
➤
same paint placement entails
same beauty
➤
Value does not supervene on
placement of paint.
➤
A supervenes on B = no
difference in A without difference
in B
Functionalism: mental states supervene on functional states
Behaviourism: mental states supervene on behavioural dispositions
Physicalism: mental states supervene on physical states
Functionalism: mental states supervene on functional states
Physicalism: mental states supervene on physical states
Functionalism: mental states supervene on functional states
Red-green colour blindness and pseudonormal vision
NIDA-RÜMELIN ON FUNCTIONALISM
➤
Functionalists: Functional
duplicates with inverted colour
experiences are impossible.
➤
➤
➤
Conceptual functionalists:
They are inconceivable.
Nida-Rümelin:
➤
Pseudonormals functional
duplicates of normals
➤
Pseudonormals’ colour
experiences inverted from
normals
Fallback: Colour science takes
these possibilities seriously.
“
No hypotheses accepted or seriously
considered in colour vision science
should be regarded according to a
philosophical theory to be either
incoherent or unstatable or false.
-Martine Nida-Rümelin