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The Qualia Trap: How the eliminativist position in philosophy of mind undermines itself
TL;DR: The article argues that "eliminativism", the philosophical stance that experience concepts should be discarded in serious theory about consciousness but kept in everyday language, is logically self-defeating. Eliminativists try to ban theoretical talk about experience by labelling it nonsense, whilst accepting ordinary expressions of experience (like saying "I am in pain"). However, to justify and explain this boundary, they are forced to use the "acceptable" everyday concepts within their theoretical arguments. By doing so, they successfully use experience-talk in a theoretical context (the act of delineating the boundary) to enforce their rule; this directly contradicts their core premise that such concepts are incapable of functioning sensically in serious theory. The essay continues by refuting possible counter-arguments.
#science
TL;DR: The article argues that "eliminativism", the philosophical stance that experience concepts should be discarded in serious theory about consciousness but kept in everyday language, is logically self-defeating. Eliminativists try to ban theoretical talk about experience by labelling it nonsense, whilst accepting ordinary expressions of experience (like saying "I am in pain"). However, to justify and explain this boundary, they are forced to use the "acceptable" everyday concepts within their theoretical arguments. By doing so, they successfully use experience-talk in a theoretical context (the act of delineating the boundary) to enforce their rule; this directly contradicts their core premise that such concepts are incapable of functioning sensically in serious theory. The essay continues by refuting possible counter-arguments.
#science
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