The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast Ep. 222: Debating Functionalism (Block, Chalmers) (Part Two)
Aug 5, 2019
A dense back-and-forth on whether a functionally identical machine could lack conscious qualia. They walk through gradual replacement and dancing qualia thought experiments. The conversation probes halfway‑between person-and‑machine scenarios, misreporting worries, inverted qualia, and whether functional descriptions can serve as a scientific account of mind.
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Gradual Replacement Challenges Absent Qualia
- Chalmers uses gradual replacement thought experiments to challenge Block's absent qualia objection to functionalism.
- If functional duplicates behave identically, Chalmers argues we must accept they share qualia or face absurd discontinuities.
Discontinuities Make Absent Qualia Implausible
- Chalmers argues sudden disappearance of qualia during replacement would create arbitrary brute discontinuities in nature.
- He treats fading or vanishing qualia as implausible compared with accepting that functional organization determines experience.
Fading Qualia Produce Systematic Self-Error
- Fading qualia would make subjects systematically mistaken about their own experiences while reporting the same judgments.
- That mismatch seems counterintuitive and supports Chalmers' claim against absent qualia scenarios.
