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I understand that the belief in qualia may be based on a sensual illusion, but I can't get my head around illusionism. Obviously, illusionists deny that we experience any illusion, we just believe (or not) that we do.

But I am absolutely certain that, supposing qualia do not exist, I am experiencing (through touch, hearing etc.) the illusion of qualia. Isn't it up to them to account not for the belief or statement of belief but what it expresses? That's vacuously impossible, if the belief is true.

According to illusionists (Dennett 2019, 2020; Frankish 2016; Kammerer 2021), conscious experience is an illusion. It certainly seems to us that conscious experiences, and thus qualia (at least in sense (1) of the four senses distinguished at the beginning of this entry) exist, but in reality there are no such things. Qualia are like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny (Dennett 2020). It is not being denied here that through the use of our senses, we genuinely encounter a wide range of qualities, for example, in perception, colors, auditory qualities such as pitch and loudness, various textures and aromas. But the qualities so encountered are not properties of experiences; for we do not genuinely undergo any experiences. To be sure, when we introspect, it certainly seems to us that we are the subjects of experiences with widely varying phenomenal character. But we are wrong... This position is not easy to take seriously; for what could be more obvious than the existence of conscious experience? Adherents of the view may respond that introspection simply leads us astray. On the basis of introspection, we believe that we undergo experiences (states with qualia in sense (1)), but the beliefs so formed are false. What would help strong illusionism here is a theory of introspection which can explain the apparent absurdity of the view.

What sort of argument would suffice to shift the burden of proof onto someone who claims they have experiences?

  • i guess i'm just shifting the burden of proof –  Jan 17 '24 at 05:42
  • Qualia are considered to be the most simple type of conscious perception. Please give a reference for the claim that qualia are illusions. - I do not understand the last sentence of your question, could you please clarify. – Jo Wehler Jan 17 '24 at 05:46
  • The polar opposite of illusionism, panpsychism, provokes incredulous stare too. As did non-Euclidean geometry, until it didn't, incredulity dissipates with habit. If they are right that we are compelled into mistaken experiential beliefs "100% certainty about experiences" will make no difference, we are still mistaken. But it is on them to explain how the compulsion works, see Kammerer for a version of it. – Conifold Jan 17 '24 at 05:50
  • incredulity is a specific thing. i am not just incredulous, but certain @Conifold –  Jan 17 '24 at 05:52
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    Illusion here simply means error, maybe replace the word will be better for you?... – Double Knot Jan 17 '24 at 06:55
  • So was Saccheri, "the hypothesis of the acute angle is absolutely false; because it is repugnant to the nature of straight lines." And Kant after him. Descartes got into hot water even with something as 'certain' as cogito. Certainty and incredulity are psychological attitudes, not an argument, and choice adjectives and adverbs do not make up for its absence. Read Kammerer, he is one of the few illusionists who acknowledges the incredulous stare and tries to address it. – Conifold Jan 17 '24 at 07:11
  • how would you know @Conifold ? –  Jan 17 '24 at 07:23
  • @Conifold, Illusionism as presented in the question is not in the same category as panpsychism or non-Euclidean geometry. Panpsychism involves the premise that there are things going on we have no access to. Non-Euclidean geometry, depending on what you mean by that, is either nothing more than a proof that Euclidean geometry is not pure logic, or is nothing but an alternate formulation of physical theory. By contrast illusionism denies the most direct and certain information we have about the external world. If it is true, we can know nothing at all. – David Gudeman Jan 17 '24 at 17:59
  • @Conifold the Euclidean axiom was quite controversial in antiquity. I guess the axiom comes rather from a legitimate conception of straightness, which we find natural and just assume. But the psychological illusion that our real space is Euclidean was not that common. Also, qualia seem to be a much tougher problem than those historical examples since belief in them does not result from a questionable rational insight but rather from direct experience. I really dislike it when Dennett calls belief in qualia a mere "intuition". – viuser Jan 17 '24 at 18:21
  • I guess if you could show that qualia are an illusion, we would have an argument against the most extreme skeptical views. At least, we wouldn't need to bridge the world of experience with the world of physical objects anymore. Of course, rather serious skepticism, even brain-in-a-vat skepticism, would remain unrefuted. But at least we can't claim that there maybe aren't physical objects, like Descartes. – viuser Jan 17 '24 at 18:27
  • @viuser: I don't pretend to fully understand Dennett's position here. But I must confess that I'm deeply uncomfortable with saying things like "I know that conscious experience is real, because I experience it." It feels too much like Munchausen pulling himself up by his own hair. – Kevin Jan 17 '24 at 19:12
  • @Kevin I really don't see the problem: prima facie it's real because I experience it. Illusionists need to explain where this supposedly wrong human conviction of subjective experience comes from, if in fact humans never subjectively experience anything. Dennett doesn't do this, and instead just suggests it may be an illusion by giving some IMHO unrelated examples about past historical errors. – viuser Jan 17 '24 at 19:26
  • @viuser: That sort of prima facie argument is fine for most things, but when you're using conscious experience to justify conscious experience, it's like a repackaging of the Cogito, and IMHO raises similar questions. – Kevin Jan 17 '24 at 19:28
  • @Kevin Yes, I'm using conscious experience to justify conscious experience. The problematic step in the Cogito was to infer an "Ego", a substance – which was already pointed out in Descartes' time and famously by Kant ("Achilles of rational psychology"). I still don't see a fault in a more basic reformulation "Even when I doubt everything, there is still doubting / thinking". This is such an extremely strong argument that some sort of explanation where it goes wrong is necessary. It cannot just be dismissed without any concrete explanation. – viuser Jan 17 '24 at 19:34
  • @viuser: I'm not going to get into a full debate on this, but IMHO the problem is that it leaves unanswered several questions along the lines of the following: What are these 'doubts' of which we're so certain? What are they made of? Can you measure them? Are they physically realized? What properties do they have? How do we know that something is a 'doubt' and not something else? etc. There are serious questions of epistemology, ontology, and so on that are left unaddressed, and I'm entirely uncomfortable with sweeping those under the rug and saying "Well it exists so we're done." – Kevin Jan 17 '24 at 19:48
  • @Kevin you could apply all sorts of skepticism to your measurement devices, which workings exploit the laws of physics, but were used to find the laws of physics (experimenter's regress). We have those complex scientific theories, but there are subtle contradictions here and there. Etc. One could argue science depends on sweeping qualitative properties under the rug of consciousness, declaring them illusions – so doing the same for consciousness won't work. In any case, I don't say we're DONE, but I regard denial of consciousness as an extreme position, so Dennett bears the burden of proof. – viuser Jan 17 '24 at 20:01
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    See this answer to understand what the illusionists are saying and why. https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/61897/why-did-daniel-dennett-not-adequately-explain-consciousness/86967#86967 Raw data should generally be taken as real, but if there is strong enough justification to do so, it can be dismissed. The justification that Blackmore provides -- is NOT strong enough to justify throwing out data she does not want to believe. – Dcleve Jan 19 '24 at 06:34

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There is an important difference between qualia and Father Christmas which Dennett foolishly overlooks: viz, there is a convincing and vastly more plausible alternative explanation for why presents appear at Christmas.

I have read and listened to hours of Dennett and Frankish, and at the end of that investment of intellectual effort I have no more inkling of what they were saying than at the start. They might well be on to a good idea, but they have not developed it beyond an empty speculation. If the illusionists reach the point at which they are able to explain why we experience the detailed, vivid, consistent, nuanced etc etc illusion of sight, for example, then they will have shifted the burden of proof to the point at which I would give the idea fresh consideration. My expectation, however, is that we will find that the difference between the illusionists and the rest of us actually boils down to just a difference in labelling- they use the word illusion where we use qualia, and neither gives any insight into what is really happening.

Marco Ocram
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  • i can accept that some people are not certain they have experiences, but not that they believe they do not (let alone conceive of their reasons for claiming otherwise) –  Jan 17 '24 at 07:35
  • Your last remark about labelling - especially the idea that "they use the word illusion where we use qualia, and neither gives any insight into what is really happening." is brilliant and very helpful to me, since I don't agree with either. But much will depend on how we interpret that "really" in really happening. Most people will probably go for some form of physicalism. Others will go for no explanation possible. Both have points in their favour. Neither is really convincing. Which repeats the problem at a different level. Frustration again! – Ludwig V Jan 17 '24 at 07:41
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    Daniel Dennett in a Guardian interview: "I really don't like academic bullies, these silverbacks in whatever field who resort to bullying. Overpowering people with their prestige and rhetoric. It's an abuse of power." – nice statement, but when reading Dennett, I always feel bullied by him. He uses too much rhetoric that only works because of the prestige of the natural sciences. – viuser Jan 17 '24 at 20:08
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    @viuser Indeed. In this exchange he is quite nasty to Searle https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/12/21/the-mystery-of-consciousness-an-exchange/ – Minsky Jan 17 '24 at 21:40
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If qualia were an illusion, then it would only seem to us that we are experiencing qualia, when in fact we are not. We may think of one bucket, containing the qualia that we actually experience, which is empty. And then a second bucket containing the qualia that it seems we experience, which is full of all sorts of things.

The problem with this picture is that a quale is defined by how it seems. If it seems you perceive quale X, then by definition, you perceive quale X. Everything in bucket 2 automatically also goes in bucket 1.

If that is not sufficiently convincing, then set it aside. Very well, let us suppose again that bucket 1 is empty. It remains for Dennett and the like to explain the contents of bucket 2. And it seems that explaining the contents of bucket 2 is very difficult. Indeed it seems that explaining the contents of bucket 2 is just as difficult as explaining qualia in the first place. It's practically the same task.

causative
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The trouble with qualia is their qualitative character which poses a challenge to, ex. functionalist theories of mind. Under such a theory, there would be no difference between a 180 degree change in our reaction to color qualia and the famous inverted color spectrum thought experiment, because the causal role which these functionalised qualia play wouldn't change. Qualia, however, are claimed to be only subjectively available, causally transparent etc. and thus cannot be subjected to such analysis.

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    The functionalist answer is that there just cannot be an inverted-qualia color spectrum without changing the functional behavior of the brain. The subjective character of a color is a function of its causal relationships with other colors and other ideas, e.g. red subjectively is the way it is because of its associations with strawberries, sunsets, orange and purple, etc. Consider what would happen if someone's color qualia spectrum suddenly inverted; they would remark on it. That remark would be a functional difference, which must have been caused by a change in the brain. – causative Jan 17 '24 at 18:01
  • @causative Yes, you're correct in regards to colour, but I'm going off the notion of qualia which talks about 'intrinsicness'. I'm mostly repeating what Gil Harman said in his articles regarding functionalism and qualia. –  Jan 17 '24 at 18:25
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What sort of argument would suffice to shift the burden of proof onto someone who claims they have experiences?

This is difficult, because I have not read Dennett on this particular point, and so I can't pretend to speak for him. But it seems to me that even the slightest weakening of Dennett's position is sufficient to entirely shift the burden of proof.

Introspection tells us shockingly little: It tells us that we subjectively experience something. But it does not tell us what this "something" is supposed to be. What is conscious experience? Is it physical? Non-physical? Measurable? Does it inhere in neurons, functional relationships, or something else entirely? Those are, in some sense, the easy questions that physicalists and dualists have been arguing over for centuries.

There's a much more fundamental issue here: How do we know that conscious experience has any substance beyond our subjective experience of it? What if conscious experience is confined to each individual's inner world, and has no physical or non-physical realization other than that subjective experience? If any other object, besides conscious experience, had the property of only existing in one person's mind, we would not hesitate to call that object an "illusion." Perhaps this is what Dennett means when he asserts that consciousness is an "illusion" - not that the subjective experience does not exist, but rather that there is nothing underlying the subjective experience - that it is just a subjective experience, without any objective reality behind it. Introspection has no answer for this - it can tell us that the subjective experience exists, but no more.

Personally, I'm not entirely convinced by this explanation. The argument seems to posit that we can have mental experiences that have no physical component, and I'm not sure that a physicalist like Dennett would make or accept a claim like that. It is, however, totally compatible with epiphenomenalism, so I could certainly imagine another philosopher holding this view.

It may yet be possible to weaken this argument further in order to allow for physicalism. We might hold that consciousness exists as a subjective experience and a family of functional brain-state relationships (or whatever brand of physicalism you like), but that it gives no deeper insight into what the brain as a whole is "actually" doing (for example, when we consciously experience ourselves making a decision, the decision has already been made by some subconscious part of the brain, and we merely experience a simulacrum of the decision-making process). The problem is, this is such a weakening of the argument that I'm not sure it's compatible with the word "illusion" anymore. Under this view, it would make more sense to call consciousness a "facade" or "simplification" of the underlying mental processes.

Kevin
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