From P-Zombies to Substance Dualism
Journal of Consciousness Studies December 1, 2024 Perry Hendricks
Philosophical zombies (p-zombies) are beings physically identical to humans but lacking subjective conscious experience. If p-zombies or inverted qualia (where two people have identical physical states but different color experiences) are possible, this is typically taken to support property dualism—the view that consciousness is not reducible to physical states. This article argues that if such scenarios are actually possible, they entail more radical conclusions than previously thought: either substance dualism (mind and body are separate substances), stronger reasons to reject p-zombies and inverted qualia, eliminativism about selves, or a need for defenders to show a disanalogy between traditional arguments and new ones that lead to substance dualism. The author does not defend any option but presents these four possibilities.