Forum.RttP{Short Paper 9 this must be relevant}

Ronald
Tomoji Shogenji
Short Paper 9
November 29, 2009
The main goal of the knowledge argument is to establish the fact that conscious experience involves non-physical properties. This is an argument against physicalism. It is based on the phenomenal qualities of sensory experience. Phenomenal qualities are sometimes called qualia or raw feel, which refer to the introspectively accessible, phenomenal aspects of our mental lives. The idea of the knowledge argument is based on the concept that even though someone may have a complete physical understanding that another conscious being exist they might still lack an understanding of how it feels to be that being. This all poses a challenge to physicalism which is a belief on the other side of the coin claiming everything is physical.
Frank Jackson’s Knowledge Argument against physicalism involves an allegory that spoofs on Platos allegory of the cave. It is called, the “Famous Case of Mary”. Basically the story reads that a girl named Mary was born and raised throughout her entire life in a black and write room with no colors beyond the simple black and white setting. Mary learns science through black and white books and black and white TV Without seeing any colors. She learned everything about physics and physiology of color perception. She learned that wave-lengths of light cause neural changes, ETC. Ultimately Mary is released to see colors outside of that room she lived in hitherto. She finally experiences redness of apples and now knows how it feels to perceive such things. She did not know this before because only Black and white was available for her to perceive. Even though she knew every physical property about color perception she did not know what it was like to perceive a red apple. In turn this suggest that being able to perceive what its like to experience a red apple is not a physical property because even though she knew all physical properties of color perception she could not understand what it was like to perceive a red apple which is not a physical property. Even though Mary had all the physical information, Frank Believes there is more than just the physical involved which shows his belief that physicalism is false and that not all things are physical.
I will now discuss two versions not discussed in class that discuss the knowledge argument in two separate versions. There is now a weaker version of the argument and a stronger version. The stronger version reads that Mary knows all the physical facts concerning human color vision before her release, however, there are some facts about human color vision that Mary does not know before her release. The conclusion drawn here would be that there are nonphysical facts concerning human color vision. This argument surely strengthens the rejection of physicalism. This stronger version is an ontological claim which forces a rejection of the physicalist claim that all things are only physical. This is an a priori concept that suggest there is some sources of experiences are not just physical in nature. This is an obvious analytical argument. The weaker version reads that Mary has complete physical knowledge concerning facts about human color vision before her release, however, there is some kind of knowledge concerning facts about human color vision that she does not have before her release. This also shows that there is some kind of knowledge concerning facts about human color vision that is considered to be non-physical knowledge, however, you can see this version isn’t as strong because the weaker version of the argument is merely an epistemological claim. It is still compatible with denying the existence of non-physical facts. This weaker version of the argument tests the foundations and the extent of knowledge. It is suggested that though the weaker version was originally presented, the stronger was the obvious intent.