Shoemaker's 'Functionalism and Qualia' demonstrates that the functional properties of color experience logically determine their qualitative similarity and difference relations, leaving no room for spectrum inversion.

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Reasons For

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Reason for

1.If two subjects have identical functional roles for color states, they must perceive qualitative similarity relations identically by definition.
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2.Spectrum inversion requires functional identity with qualitative difference, which is logically impossible under functionalism about mental content.
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3.Our similarity judgments about colors (red closer to orange than blue) are explained by and supervene on functional role relations.
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Reasons Against

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Reason against

1.Functional role might determine discriminability patterns without determining intrinsic phenomenal character—these are separable properties.
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2.Spectrum inversion could occur if inverted subjects have identical discrimination abilities but systematically different quale-to-function mappings.
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3.Similarity judgments might reflect learned associations rather than intrinsic qualitative properties, allowing functional identity with inverted experience.
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Key Terms

Functional properties(The statement argues these properties determine color experience): The characteristics of something defined by what it does and how it interacts with other things, rather than its physical makeup.
Logically determine(The statement claims functional properties necessarily fix qualitative differences): When one thing completely settles or fixes another thing by necessity—there's no way for the first to be true without the second following automatically.
Shoemaker: A shoemaker is a craftsperson who designs, makes, and repairs shoes by hand or with tools. Historically, shoemakers were skilled artisans who would create custom footwear tailored to individual customers, though today the term can refer to anyone who professionally makes or fixes shoes. This trade is one of the oldest crafts, dating back centuries, and shoemakers were once central figures in communities before mass manufacturing took over shoe production.
functionalism(Philosophy of mind; distinguished here from representationalism): The view that mental states are defined by the causal roles they play in a cognitive system — their actual, potential, or typical causal relationships.
qualia(The passage presents two competing definitions to contrast the views): On the Cartesian picture: intrinsic qualities of inner ideas of which subjects are directly aware, necessarily shared by internal duplicates regardless of environment. On wide representationalism: representational contents of inner states whose nature is partly externally determined
spectrum inversion(Philosophy of mind; distinguished from the claim that tomatoes look green to Invert): A thought experiment in which two subjects (Invert and Nonvert) have systematically different qualia for the same color stimuli, such that the qualia Invert has when seeing red are the qualia Nonvert has when seeing another color, while both correctly apply color terms

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Consciousness & Mind1 linked

Functional role might determine discriminability patterns without determining in...If two subjects have identical functional roles for color states, they must perc...Individual qualia need not be functional in nature even if having some phenomena...Our similarity judgments about colors (red closer to orange than blue) are expla...

Details

Type: claim
Perspectives: 2 (1 for, 1 against)
Edits: 1 edit