And In This Corner… JacksonTo Be Or Not To Be a PhysicalistA physicalist is one who believes that all information is physical. This is a view that sees all factual knowledge as that which can be formulated as a statement about physical objects and activities. Thus, the language of science can be reduced to thirdPerson descriptions. Philosopher Frank Jackson, an anti-physicalist, proposes the knowledge argument against physicalism, which goes as follows:Suppose that there is a brilliant neuroscientist, let’s call her Mary, who for her whole life has lived in a black and white room. Now Mary has learned every physical fact about everything there is to know in life. She’s observed the outside world and learned these physical facts by watching other people’s experiences and reactions yet all in black and white. One day she is let out of the colorless room and sees a red rose for the first time. Despite the fact that she knows everything physical there is to know about roses and people’s reactions to roses, she still learns something new at the instant she sees the color red for the first time.This knowledge argument can be summed up as so:P1: If physicalism is true, then one can know all the facts there are just by knowing all the physical facts. P2: Mary knows all physical information.P3: When she experiences red she learns something newC: Therefore, physicalism is false because the experience of red thing is a fact one cannot know just by knowing all the physical facts. Jackson’s argument is pretty convincing in supporting the anti-physicalist view. However, philosopher Levine comes back with a strong argument declaring the knowledge argument as true in one sense yet false in another. Levine’s problem stems from the way Mary supposedly “learns” the new information. He agrees that perhaps Mary doesn’t learn any new facts, yet argues that she learns old facts in new ways. He ...
