Porcelain Publishing / JHC / Volume 8 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.47297/wspjhcWSP2515-469901.20240801
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Experience as a Way of Knowing: The Knowledge Argument and Qualia

Huiming Ren1
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1 Shandong University Qingdao Campus, Institute of Philosophy of Mind
Published: 30 June 2024
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

It is first shown that many questions could be raised about phenomenal concepts and the popular answer to the question what Mary learns upon release, namely, that this is what it is like to see red. It is then shown that the category of quale is actually a postulate of philosophical theories and philosophers posit qualia because they fail to see how to account for the two related features of experience, namely, subjectivity and phenomenality. It is argued that we don't need qualia to explain the subjectivity and phenomenality of experience because we don't have to posit apparent properties. It is then proposed that experiencing is a way of knowing and that the new knowledge Mary acquires upon release is her knowledge by acquaintance with red.

Keywords
qualia; phenomenal concepts; sense-data theory; apparent properties; representationalism; knowledge by acquaintance
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Journal of Human Cognition, Electronic ISSN: 2753-5215 Print ISSN: 2515-4699, Published by Porcelain Publishing