Month: July 2010

Further musings written in 2010 on philosophy of mind – on Frank Jackson’s knowledge argument, or Mary the super-scientist.

The Thought Experiment

Mary is a great scientist of vision, but is born without the ability to see the colour red. She gets to learn everything about the physics and physiology of seeing red, and understands everything physical about the process of seeing red including all the associated brain states. Eventually doctors manage to operate upon her and restore her ability to see the colour red. Does she not acquire a new fact upon experiencing the colour red? If something is added, then she must have acquired new facts, something beyond the physical.

1. You know all the physical facts about the brain and construct a model
2. This model of the brain acts less than the mind
3. The mind is more than the brain

These are some musings written in 2010 on the subject of John Searle’s Chinese Room Argument.

A man has no knowledge of Chinese, only English. He is locked in a room, and follows a series of written instructions in English for the manipulation of Chinese characters. An appropriate series of instructions will allow him to converse in Chinese, even though he has no understanding of Chinese at all.