"NOTHING IT IS LIKE" = "NOTHING IT FEELS LIKE," NOT "NO SUCH THING AS"

Reflecting on the original form in which you posed the zombie question -- 'If there is nothing it is like to be a zombie', how is it possible to conceive of one... or [to say] that "A zombie is physically identical to a normal human being[?]" -- it occurs to me that you may simply have misconstrued the predicate "there is nothing it is like to be": That means is that "there is nothing it feels like to be" -- not, obviously, that "there exists no such thing as" a zombie (for that would simply rule the possibility out of court by fiat), or that there is no difference between a zombie and us (which would make the distinction merely verbal)!

Here's yet another reason for keeping a vigilant eye on the predicate "feels."


Stevan Harnad