ELTE TTK Tudomanytortenet es Tudomanyfilozofia Tanszek Budapest, Pazmany P. setany 1/A TUDOMANYFILOZOFIA SZEMINARIUM (http://hps.elte.hu/~leszabo/szeminar/folap.htm) ________________________________________________ 1999. oktober 18. (hetfo) 12:30 6. em. 654. K a t a l i n B a l o g Yale University CONCEIVABILITY, POSSIBILITY AND THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM I want to take on the question of what a class of arguments, usually called the Conceivability Arguments, have to say about the mind-body problem. These arguments have two different versions. In one version, considerations of conceivability are taken to support the claim that phenomenal consciousness is not identical, realized by, or supervenient on, physical properties (for example, Kripke 1972, 140-162, Nagel 1974, Robinson 1993, White 1986, Jackson 1998, and Chalmers 1996). According to the other version, there is an explanatory gap between phenomenal and physical levels of description, that does not exist with respect to other higher level descriptions, and that may have metaphysical ramifications. (This argument is formulated by Joseph Levine 1998, although he is himself hesitant to accept the conclusion.) My claim is that these arguments do not succeed in establishing their conclusions. That is because, and I take this to be the primary lesson of the Conceivability Arguments, what they reveal does not have to do with phenomenal consciousness itself, it rather has to do with the nature of phenomenal concepts. In the paper, I will focus on the most elaborate and sophisticated version of the Conceivability Argument for dualism. I first provide a general exposition of the structure of Conceivability Arguments, then I proceed to describe in greater detail Frank Jackson's and David Chalmers' new Conceivability Argument. Finally I construct a reductio that at the same time reveals where the arguments went wrong. -- Laszlo E. Szabo Department of Theoretical Physics Department of History and Philosophy of Science Eotvos University, Budapest H-1518 Budapest, Pf. 32. Phone: (36-1)2090-555/6671 Fax: (36-1)372-2509 Home: (36-1)200-7318 http://hps.elte.hu/~leszabo