THE
KNOWLEDGE ARGUMENT: A RESPONSE TO
ELIZABETH SCHIER
(Article originally published in 2008 Journal of Consciousness Studies 15(4), 112-115: journal web page: http://www.imprint.co.uk/jcs.html)
DAVID HODGSON
I much appreciated Elizabeth Schier’s paper on Frank
Jackson’s knowledge argument, published in the January 2008 issue of Journal
of Consciousness Studies (Schier 2008) – in part, I confess, because of resonances
with my gestalt argument for free will (Hodgson 2001, 2002, 2005, 2007a,
2007b). I would like to offer two
comments on this paper.
I think the distinction drawn by Schier between
representations that are fragmented and representations that are integrated
is an important one, but I think she misplaces the precise correlation of this
distinction with what may properly be called scientific representations.
I
suggest that the distinguishing characteristic of scientific representations is
that they can be elements of scientific hypotheses; that is, of hypotheses
capable of being subjected to repeated testing. In order that hypotheses may be capable of being subjected to
repeated testing, they must be expressed in terms of some generality, so that
they can apply in classes of situations.
That is, they must express or reflect rules associating types or
classes of features and/or mathematical variables. Another way of saying much the same thing is to say that science
is concerned with laws or rules about how the world works.
It may be reasonable to think that basic laws of nature deal with fragmented features of reality, such as energy, mass, electric charge, and so on, or with representations of them. But this does not mean that science, or the laws or rules with which science may be concerned, is limited to dealing with these fragmented features. Plainly, there may be other general laws or rules that can be derived from rules concerning fragmented features; and there may also be other general laws or rules arising from the unfolding of the world in accordance with laws of nature, for example laws or rules that develop by reason of evolutionary selection.
I find
John Conway’s Game of Life very useful in thinking about issues such as
these. Its basic rules deal with highly
fragmented features:
Life occurs on a virtual [and
potentially infinite] checkerboard. The
squares are called cells. They are in
one of two states: alive or dead. Each cell has eight possible neighbours, the
cells of which touch its sides or corners.
If a cell on the checkerboard is alive, it will survive in the
next time step (or generation) if there are either two or three neighbours also
alive. It will die of overcrowding if
there are more than three live neighbours, and it will die of exposure if there
are fewer than two.
If a cell on the checkerboard is dead, it will remain dead
unless exactly three of its eight neighbours are alive. In that case, the cell will be ‘born’ in the
next generation (Levy 1993, 52).
However,
there can be derived from these basic rules a rule that applies to an
integrated feature, namely a five-square pattern called a glider; and this rule
is that a glider will continually move diagonally across the checkerboard,
progressing by one cell every four generations, unless it encounters any other
live cells. Although the glider is an
integrated feature and a representation of a glider is an integrated
representation, a glider nevertheless may be the subject of a scientific
hypothesis, and a representation of a glider may be considered a scientific
representation.
As an example of a general rule
concerning an integrated feature that can develop by reason of evolution, it
seems that a simple gestalt suggesting features of a human face is regularly
and reliably responded to as such by human beings, because evolutionary
selection has so constituted human beings that patterns of that kind regularly
and reliably produce an interested response.
However, although some integrated
representations can be scientific representations, I contend that most gestalts
of our ordinary visual experiences cannot be scientific representations. Although these gestalts have constituent
features that have the generality required to engage with laws or rules and
thus to be elements of scientific hypotheses, the whole integrated gestalts
are often unique, and they are generally too feature-rich to be capable of
engaging, as wholes and in full detail, with general rules of any kind; and
thus they are incapable of being elements of scientific hypotheses.
So my contention is that while the
distinction drawn by Schier between representations that are fragmented and
representations that are integrated is important, it does not exactly
correspond with a distinction between representations that are scientific and
representations that are not scientific.
The former includes some integrated representations, albeit far from all
of them.
A strong argument against
strict physicalism
It appears
that Schier has argued elsewhere that, despite her analysis of the knowledge
argument, physicalism can nevertheless be true, because the non-scientific
representations are still representations of physical facts. My second comment on her paper is that her
analysis of the knowledge argument in fact tends to support a strong argument
against strict physicalism.
One important component of physicalism
is the view that everything that happens in the world has sufficient physical
causes, and so can be given a complete physical explanation. This requires that events unfold in the
world precisely as determined by prior circumstances and physical laws of
nature, or at least randomly within probability parameters precisely determined
by prior circumstances and physical laws of nature. That is, physicalism is inconsistent with there being any
distinct contribution by conscious experiences, as such, to the determination
of how events unfold.
Now if it is the case that individual
visual representations are not scientific representations and cannot, as
integrated wholes, be elements of scientific hypotheses or engage with general
rules, one is left with stark alternatives:
either these visual representations, as integrated wholes, play no part
whatsoever in the unfolding of events (that is, they are ‘epiphenomenal’), or
else they play a part that cannot be fully explained by scientific hypotheses
and cannot be fully explained or determined by laws or rules of any kind.
My gestalt argument for free will,
first fully developed in an article published in Journal of Consciousness
Studies in 2002 (Hodgson 2002) and subsequently presented in various ways
and in various publications (for example Hodgson 2007a, 2007b), gives strong
reasons for rejecting the former alternative and accepting the latter. Schier’s distinctions can thus contribute to
a strong argument against physicalism, because the outcome of any part played
by the non-scientific representations of visual experiences, in determining
what happens, could not be wholly determined by physical laws or by rules of
any kind. The reasonable conclusion is
that, although physical processes and physical laws play a large and
indispensable role in determining how visual experiences and/or their neural
correlates affect behaviour, there can also be contributions to behaviour from
responses of conscious subjects to these experiences, contributions that are
not random yet not wholly determined by physical processes and physical laws.
Conclusion
My own
belief is that, when Mary first sees red, she learns something new, that is,
how red looks or what it is like to see red.
But even if it were the case that in this respect Mary only becomes
acquainted with a new form of information that she already had, Schier’s
argument shows that she must learn something new as regards those cases where
the colour red is an element in a broader integrated visual experience, which
cannot itself be an element of a scientific hypothesis or engage precisely with
laws or rules. What Mary comes to know
in those cases is the integrated gestalt of this experience, to which the
experience of red makes an indispensable contribution.
And this analysis in turn, I suggest,
tends to support a powerful argument against physicalism, and in support of
free will.
Hodgson, D. (2001), ‘Constraint, empowerment and guidance: a
conjectural classification of laws of nature’, Philosophy 76,
341-70.
Hodgson, D. (2002), ‘Three tricks of consciousness’, Journal
of Consciousness Studies 9(12), 65-88.
Hodgson, D. (2005), ‘A plain person’s free will’, Journal of
Consciousness Studies 12(1), 1-19.
Hodgson, D. (2007a), ‘Partly free’, Times Literary Supplement,
July 6, 2007.
Hodgson, D. (2007b), ‘Making our own luck’, Ratio 20,
278-292.
Levy, S. (1993), Artificial Life (Harmondsworth: Penguin).
Schier, E.. (2008), ‘The knowledge argument and the inadequacy
of scientific knowledge’, Journal of Consciousness Studies 15(1),
39-62.