Subjective Feelings, Experiences, and Opinions are an Important part of Knowledge that Physicalism Ignores
In an essay called “Epiphenomenal Qualia,” Frank Jackson makes a Knowledge Argument based on showing how Physicalism alone is insufficient in providing information for the pursuit of knowledge. He focuses on our senses to illustrate this, and the specific one Jackson uses is vision. In his first example he presents the scenario of a guy named Fred that can see an extra shade of red on ripe tomatoes. He is the only person alive on planet Earth that can see that shade of red, which is called red2. If we extensively study, interview, and research Fred to learn absolutely everything about his physical state, background, and history, still none of us would know red2. That is because we can not see or experience red2. Jackson further presses this point by presenting a wild situation related to Fred. In this situation we know everything about Fred from our due diligence before, but we were all treated, or operated on, to have the same brain and visual capacity as Fred so we could finally see red2. When we do see it, that image reinforces to us that even though we knew everything physical about Fred, we still did not know everything because we didn’t know what red2 was until we experienced it ourselves, therefore showing Physicalism does not tell us everything.
Frank Jackson gives another vision related example to further his Knowledge Argument. In this scenario a scientist named Mary exists in a completely black and white world where she watches a colorless TV to learn all the physical information having to do with color, but of course, in her black and white world, never sees it. When Mary is eventually exposed to color, which is in this case red, she has learned something new despite her knowing all the physical information about color. And since she has learned something new, yet had all the physical information, there has to be something missing in the Physicalism realm of thought.
Jackson asserts that even if we have all the physical information concerning a color, sound, or taste, we are missing information until we actually experience any of those things. Physicalism says that Mary knowing of all the physical data about red means she knows it, and therefore seeing it would only be reinforcement of what she already knew. Physicalism separates the experience from the information, while Qualia seems to view it as something integral to knowledge. Red is a physical result of light that can be measured, manipulated, and identified. But seeing this light based phenomenon for the first time is also an experience beyond the physical that provides information which contributes to knowledge. An experience, like the introduction of red being luscious, surprising, or disgusting, is information that can’t be learned through knowledge of physical information. The prism of light does not provide subjective interpretations of what colors mean or how they make us feel, all of which is information that plays a role in our acquisition of knowledge.
Subjective information like feelings and opinions are still information. Mary can not learn the information about how seeing red will make her feel or react until she sees it, even if she has all the physical information from her previous black and white existence. This also relates to conditioning. You do not always know something is bad or good based on its physical sound or appearance, and you will not know all the information of its nature until you are rewarded or punished based on the experience. Appearance in this case is very subjective, and the objectivity of the good or bad is the information taught through experience.
Fred from the first example never told us what red2 represented to him. It was only a color we could not see. He could have described what the red2 areas of the tomatoes were like, and how red2 made the tomatoes look better or worse. But that information he could’ve provided is subjective, and it can only be predicted to be correct to him. First because he is initially the only person that can see it, and secondly because people differ in that one person’s ideal can be another’s dismay. Since it is only correct to him, the only application of knowledge is knowing what he thinks and it is only correct to him until you gather more information. To form your own view, you would need to experience seeing it yourself to gain that subjective information, beyond Physicalism, to further supplement your knowledge. We can not gain that information until we’ve experienced seeing it ourselves. Jackson convincingly shows that Physicalism does not provide all the information needed by implying that reactions, feelings, and other subjective information is key part of knowledge.
The essay was a study on the Qualia view of Knowledge versus that of Physicalism. The author heavily favors the Qualia approach. Knowledge is such a huge idea and issue, it is hard to paint it as any one thing, so anything that limits it I would steer away from, as Jackson does with Physicalism. Physicalism does not take into account the subjective information that comes from experiencing something and its resulting effect on our Knowledge. Neither example having to do with the color red specifically mentions anything about subjectivity, but it is in my view implied because I too believe information is missing. And it is that missing subjective information that stands out the most. What we learn about Fred after having the operation to see the special shade of red2 is not physical, because we already know absolutely everything about him, but we pick up intangible things, like how our views, feelings, and opinions of the color red2 differ and why. All of that is information, and all correct information should contribute to knowledge. So I at least agree with Jackson that Physicalism is very much incomplete.
