Subjectivity, Multiple Drafts and the Inconceivability of Zombies and the Inverted Spectrum in this World.

Proponents of the hard problem of consciousness argue that the zombie and inverted spectrum thought experiments demonstrate that consciousness cannot be physical. They present scenarios designed to demonstrate that it is conceivable that a physical replica of someone can have radically different or...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Topoi: An International Review of Philosophy Vol. 38; no. 4; pp. 845 - 854
Main Author: Schier, Elizabeth
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Dec2019
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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Summary:Proponents of the hard problem of consciousness argue that the zombie and inverted spectrum thought experiments demonstrate that consciousness cannot be physical. They present scenarios designed to demonstrate that it is conceivable that a physical replica of someone can have radically different or no conscious experiences, that such an experience-less replica is possible and therefore that materialism is false. I will argue that once one understands the limitations that the physics of this world puts on cognitive systems, zombies and the inverted spectrum are not conceivable.