Philosophical Speculations

I would suggest that we know a few other things besides. We know that mind can appear to mind as matter, as in the case of dreams and some hallucinatory states. We know that at least some matter is an outer appearance of inner life. And we know that both matter and mind can only be conceived of in ...

Slightly off topic but I have been thinking recently, can we really conclude that idealism is any better than some kind of neutral monism? I understand the argument that since we know minds exist, using consciousness as a reduction base has a low epistemic cost. But it requires us to give properties...

DandelionSoul, that is certainly related to what I'm talking about. I agree that this line of thinking shows clearly why physical properties shouldn't be seen as essential properties, but it doesn't go as far as demonstrating that mental properties are essential. Although I do think this becomes the...

Phenomenal qualities have causal efficacy in the mind, but not in the world. It makes sense to talk about a subjective feeling of pain influencing an organism's mood or behavior, and it makes sense to talk about a needle prick causing a physiological response in an organism. The problem is in trying...

I figured it out. Phenomenal qualities aren't measurable because they don't play a causal role in the world. To take a measurement, you need a consistent, causal relationship between the phenomenon and the measuring instrument. The phenomenon modulates the behavior of the instrument in a useful and ...

This is how I try to imagine existence/causality without space or time. First, existence without time. This can be modeled as something like a block universe, where time is represented spatially as a series of snapshots that follow in sequence. In the block universe, time does exist as a dimension, ...

Thanks, this definitely gives me more to think about, although I still haven't quite answered the question "why?" as thoroughly as I'd like. Note that I said "physical account" and not "physicalist account"!

I enjoy thinking of ways to frame the challenge of the hard problem and I'm trying to formulate it as rigorously as I can. I think I'm getting close, but I still have trouble expressing all of my thoughts exactly. Here's what I have right now. Any thoughts for how to improve it? Physical accounts ar...