The Inverted Spectrum
Edited by Andrew Bailey (University of Guelph)
About this topic
Summary | Inverted spectrum arguments seek to refute physicalism or functionalism about qualia by showing that, even when all the relevant physical (or functional or intentional or behavioural) facts are held constant, the facts about qualia can still vary, and hence that the phenomenal must be over and above the physical (or functional etc.). The argument trades on the widely, though not universally, accepted fact that at least one of our modes of sensation--usually taken to be colour sensation--has at least one axis of symmetry, such that our colour sensations could be inverted along that axis of symmetry while leaving all the relations between those colour sensations unaffected, and so (arguably) leaving unaffected all of our dispositions with respect to those sensations. |
Key works | The inverted spectrum argument is generally thought to originate with Locke & Nidditch 1979 (Book 2, Chap. XXXII). A seminal modern discussion is Shoemaker 1982, while Block 1990 influentially applies the inverted spectrum argument to intentionalism as well as functionalism. Two representative replies from the internationalist camp are Hilbert & Kalderon 2000 and Tye 2000. Horgan 1984 and Putnam 1981 present inverted spectrum arguments against functionalism, while responses include Cole 1990 and Rey 1992. |
Introductions | Byrne 2004; Nida-Rümelin 1996; Chalmers 1995; Block 2007 |
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Related categories
Siblings:
- Qualia, Misc (141)
- Qualia and Materialism (232)
- Eliminativism about Qualia (54)
- Absent Qualia (56)
- Functionalism and Qualia (205)
- Zombies and the Conceivability Argument (363)
- Color Experience (150)
- Representationalism (425)
- Perceptual Qualities (729 | 240)
- Qualia, Misc (141)
- Absent Qualia (56)
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Editorial team
General Editors:
David Bourget (Western Ontario) David Chalmers (ANU, NYU) Area Editors: David Bourget Gwen Bradford Berit Brogaard Margaret Cameron David Chalmers James Chase Rafael De Clercq Ezio Di Nucci Barry Hallen Hans Halvorson Jonathan Ichikawa Michelle Kosch Øystein Linnebo JeeLoo Liu Paul Livingston Brandon Look Manolo Martínez Matthew McGrath Michiru Nagatsu Susana Nuccetelli Giuseppe Primiero Jack Alan Reynolds Darrell P. Rowbottom Aleksandra Samonek Constantine Sandis Howard Sankey Jonathan Schaffer Thomas Senor Robin Smith Daniel Star Jussi Suikkanen Lynne Tirrell Aness Webster Other editors Contact us Learn more about PhilPapers |