The importance of a consideration of qualia to imagery and cognition.
T L Hubbard
Consciousness and Cognition September 1, 1996 DOI: 10.1006/ccog.1996.0021 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Humans Imagination Perception Sensation Cognitive science Models, psychological |
| Key points | Argues that qualia—subjective sensory aspects of experience—are essential to imagistic representation and cannot be adequately explained by descriptive physical knowledge alone. The author contends that philosophical scenarios like the Turing test and Chinese Room reveal inadequacies in accounts of cognition that ignore subjective experience, and that qualia are necessary to explain, not just predict, objective behavior. The paper also examines whether analog and schematic models of imagery can account for qualia. |
Abstract
Experiences of qualia, subjective sensory-like aspects of stimuli, are central to imagistic representation. Following Raffman (1993), qualia are considered to reflect experiential knowledge distinct from descriptive, abstract, and propositional knowledge; following Jackendoff (1987), objective neural activity is distinguished from subjective experience. It is argued that descriptive physical knowledge does not provide an adequate accounting of qualia, and philosophical scenarios such as the Turing test and the Chinese Room are adapted to demonstrate inadequacies of accounts of cognition that ignore subjective experience. Arguments by Dennett and others that qualia do not exist or that qualia do not provide additional explanatory power are addressed, and it is suggested that consideration of qualia is necessary in order to explain (and not just predict) objective behavior. The hypotheses of functional equivalence, second-order isomorphism, and psychophysical complementarity between imagery and perception are discussed, and the ability of analog and schematic models of imagery to account for qualia is examined.