Yes. If qualia is defined as George Wilfrid describes it elsewhere in this thread, as nothing more than sensation, then I definitely have it. But I suspect there’s something more— plenty of people have tried to point to it, using phrases like “conceptually separate the information content from what it feels like”. Well, I can’t. That phrase doesn’t mesh with a phenomenon in my mind. The information content is what it feels like.
conceptually separate the information content from what it feels like”. Well, I can’t
Most people can. If Alice tastes something , and Bob asks her to describe it, what Bob gets is the information without the experience.
It’s rather obvious that you can have information content without vivid colours , tastes and smells associated with it. Unless you have severe synaesthesia.
A quale is more than in formation. A quale is not more than sensation. It’s just the subjective, felt aspect without the behavioural aspect. The grimace is not part of the pain.
That depends on how we define “information”—for one definition of information, qualia are information (and also everything else is, since we can only recognize something by the pattern it presents to us).
But for another definition of information, there is a conceptual difference—for example, morphine users report knowing they are in pain, but not feeling the quale of pain.
Do you simultaneously know what it’s like when something looks red, and also believe that you don’t have qualia?
Yes.
If qualia is defined as George Wilfrid describes it elsewhere in this thread, as nothing more than sensation, then I definitely have it. But I suspect there’s something more— plenty of people have tried to point to it, using phrases like “conceptually separate the information content from what it feels like”. Well, I can’t. That phrase doesn’t mesh with a phenomenon in my mind. The information content is what it feels like.
Most people can. If Alice tastes something , and Bob asks her to describe it, what Bob gets is the information without the experience.
It’s rather obvious that you can have information content without vivid colours , tastes and smells associated with it. Unless you have severe synaesthesia.
A quale is more than in formation. A quale is not more than sensation. It’s just the subjective, felt aspect without the behavioural aspect. The grimace is not part of the pain.
That depends on how we define “information”—for one definition of information, qualia are information (and also everything else is, since we can only recognize something by the pattern it presents to us).
But for another definition of information, there is a conceptual difference—for example, morphine users report knowing they are in pain, but not feeling the quale of pain.