Summary |
Absent qualia arguments seek to refute physicalism or functionalism about qualia by showing that, even when all the relevant physical (or functional) facts are fixed, qualia can still be absent, and hence that the phenomenal is not fixed by the physical (/functional). The basic intution is that the wholly causal, structural and relational resources of physics and functionalism are incapable, in principle, of capturing the intrinsic qualitative character of mental states like tasting coffee, seeing yellow or suffering a toothache. This inituition is often supported, in arguments against functionalism, by constructing cases where a functionalist account of the mind is implemented in a non-standard way, such as by the population of China connected together by two-way radios. |