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Philosophy

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    All mental states with an awareness (e.g. not being under anesthesia, not dreamless sleep) are qualia. We can speak of mental states without awareness, like being in the mental state of sleeping without dreaming, but no so for qualia, they have an awareness, a what it's like. Dreamless sleep has no perceiving entity. Sometimes we don't notice all the aspects of phenomenlogical experience, but we can later introspect on what that experience was like. I remember what it's like to taste mint, so I can correlate it with a future mint tasting. We can't do this for dreamless sleep. Commented Aug 11, 2024 at 21:14
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    I think phenomenal character is meant to convey the qualities you have when experiencing qualia. Human character is made up of qualities such a honesty or selflessness. Sound and taste have qualities that are subjective. I might like marmite or you may not. These qualities do not exist in the external physical world. Sound is in the mind outside the mind"here is only the vibration of the eardrum, the vibration of the air and the source of the vibration. With vision we see the colour red, a photon or wavelength is just a packet of energy and has no colour. That's how I understand qualia. Commented Aug 11, 2024 at 21:16
  • Even if different experiences are induced by different colors a correspondence is not "totally equivalent" to identity. Experiences are plainly distinct from what they are experiences of. Besides, it is easy to imagine the same color (as described by physics and physiology) induce different experiences in the same subject under the same circumstances, and hard to imagine how one subject would transfer their color experience to another, as opposed to letting them see the color itself. Describing it in words is even less revealing, and 'mind sharing', even if possible, may well alter it. Commented Aug 11, 2024 at 23:11
  • go look at a postbox. that patch of red you see: it is what ppl refer to as "qualia." that may not be a satisfactory answer, but it might help you understand Commented Aug 11, 2024 at 23:23
  • Why talk about "qualia", why not just talk about experiences, perceptions, etc? Does any psychological research use qualia as a technnical term? (I never saw any research that did.) Do qualia explain anything that we cannot explain by psychology? Commented Aug 12, 2024 at 1:21