Why the Ability Hypothesis is Best Forgotten
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Why the Ability Hypothesis is best forgotten According to the knowledge argu ment, physicalism fails because when physically omniscient Mary first sees red, her gain in phenomenal knowledge involves a gain in factual knowledge. Thus not all facts are physical facts. According to the ability hypothesis, the knowledge argument fails because Mary only acquires abilities to imagine, remember and recognise redness, and not new factual knowledge. I argue that reducing Mary’s new knowledge to abilities does not affect the issue of whether she also learns factually I show that gaining specific new phenomenal knowledge is required for acquiring abilities of the relevant kind. !henomenal knowledge being basic to abilities, and not vice versa, it is left an open question whether someone who acquires such abilities also learns something factual. The answer depends on whether the new phenomenal knowledge involved is factual. "ut this is the same question we wanted to set tl e when fi rst considering the knowled ge ar gu ment. Th e abil it y hypoth esi s, the re fore, has off ered us no dia lect ical pr og re ss with the kno wle dge argument, and is best forgotten. I. Introduction When Mary’s eyes first light upon a red tomato, according to the knowledge argument against physicalism [Jackson 1982, 198!, she learns the fact of what an e"perience of redness is like# $he could not know this fact %efore seeing the tomato, ha&ing always %een imprisoned in a %lack and white la%oratory # 'rom this la%oratory though, %eing incredi%ly smart and so on, she was a%le to accumulate e&ery physical(scientific fact rele&ant to the workings of colour &ision) using %lack and white te"t%ooks, tele&ision and such# *ut none of this information sufficed to tell Mary what seeing red would %e like ahead of time, we are told# +hus, concludes the argument, the fact that Mary learns when she sees the tomato is a nonphysical fact, rendering physicalism false# 1 -ccording to the a%ility hypothesis .-/0 [ewis 198, 1988(2334) 5emirow 1983, 1993!, the knowledge argument fails# 6roponents of -/ claim the knowledge Mary gains upon seeing red is not of any new fact , %ut is instead comprised of a set of new abilities# -nd since Mary encounters no new fact, the story goes, physicalism is not threate ned# 'or no fact is demo nstrat ed such that it is missing from her compl ete list of physical(scientific facts# -/ was the first ma7or response to the knowledge argument, %ut it is nowadays shunned %y defenders of physicalism, who prefer other strategies# 2 5either, howe&er, is the theory generally held to %e defunct# +his lea&es open the possi%ility that it might 1
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