Physicalism

Physicalism is the philosophical position, which states that everything is placed under the limits of its physical properties, and that there is nothing other than physical things. The knowledge argument is said to be one of the biggest challenges to physicalism, which holds that the world is entirely physical. It was first introduced in 1982 by Frank Jackson, who no longer supports it but is still said to be one of the most important arguments in the philosophy of mind. Frank Jackson establishes the knowledge argument by using two different though experiments; Epiphenomenal Qualia and What Mary Doesn’t know. Both of these experiments are meant to prove that our own conscious experience differs from those who around us. This is done throughout the articles by showing that it is possible for you to have a physical description of an object without actually have the complete knowledge needed and thus proving that there are non-physical facts. The idea behind the knowledge argument is that an individual can have all the physical knowledge needed about another conscious but still be have incomplete knowledge about how it may feel to have the experiences of that particular thing. Through the examination of Daniel Dennett, David Lewis, and Paul Churchland it is evident that the knowledge argument rejects physicalism.

Fred in Frank Jackson’s article Epiphenomenal Qualia is an individual who can see things that most people cant, where most of us see one specific single color, Fred can pick out two separate colors; red1 and red2. Fred further explains that the difference between red1 and red2 is as extreme as yellow is to blue for most of us. Fred confirms his beliefs by sorting out ripe tomatoes into 2 categories, which to us look the ...

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...se or not however it does prove Jacksons argument to be invalid.

Through the examination of Daniel Dennett, David Lewis, and Paul Churchland it is evident that Frank Jacksons knowledge argument rejects physicalism. Imagining and having first hand experience with colors are two distinct things, thus an individual no matter what cannot say that Mary knows how colors look without experiencing them. According to Dennett, the problem with the knowledge argument was that if we can really find out what Marys knowledge is like, then we would know what to expect when she sees colours for the first time. This would support physicalism. However, Churchland made it possible to make this argument wrong. He did this by explaining a way in which the visual system works; due to the way Mary has been raised it would be neurologically impossible for her to be able to see colors.