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Analysis Of ' Zombie Argument And Jackson's Room Argument

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As mentioned above, the Physicalist doctrine has come under serious threat by an argument for Property Dualism (and therefore against Physicalism). We have already seen this Property Dualism Argument (henceforth PDA) in its original formulation by J.J.C. Smart, but it will be helpful to look at a few of its reincarnations to fully grasp its scope. I will introduce two notable and familiar examples, namely Chalmers’ Zombie argument and Jackson’s Mary’s room argument, and then show, using Block’s terminology of reference, how they boil down to having the same generic form as Smart’s (CHECK WHETHER YOU’RE PLAGIARISING FROM BLOCK HERE). Formulating the generic PDA in Block’s terms exposes its central premises as well as its critical points. Reincarnations of the Property Dualism Argument
In 1982, Frank Jackson proposed an argument to the effect that phenomenal properties are irreducible to physical properties by appealing to knowledge. His reasoning runs as follows:
Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world from a black and white room via a black and white television monitor. She specialises in the neurophysiology of vision and acquires, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like 'red ', 'blue ', and so on. […] What will happen when Mary is released from her black and white room or is given a colour television monitor? Will she

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