No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Churchland on Reduction, Qualia, and Introspection
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2022
Extract
Churchland (1985) is much struck with the possibility that we might learn to make introspective reports in “the conceptual framework of a matured neuroscience”. He thinks that this would yield “a quantum leap in self-apprehension”. And he apparently thinks that the possibility of this strengthens the case for reductionism. I will not question the claim that we might learn to make in a quasi-introspective way the sorts of reports Churchland envisages, about dopamine levels in the limbic system, spiking frequencies in neural pathways, and so forth; nor will I question that this might have a beneficial effect on our aesthetic appreciation, our emotional self-understanding, and the like. I will question whether the awareness Churchland envisages would be genuine introspective awareness, although in some sense it would involve it.
- Type
- Part XIX. Qualitative Experience
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © 1985 by the Philosophy of Science Association