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So here's Frank Jackson himself responding to his own argument using "representationalism".

So as I'm understanding Frank's newer view... when Mary "sees" red she's not learning anything new... what's happening according to Frank is that the brain is urging along knowledge about the physical world through experience/sensation... so it's a new way of absorbing old information.

I am puzzled by his response; I mean, it seems to me that Mary at least learns what it is like to have this new type of brain experience she didn't have before. Even if the seeing of red is a "representation", Mary still attains knowledge of that representation which she didn't have before. Am I missing something?

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    "new way of absorbing old information" is very persuasive. But it doesn't explain "what it is like to" experience (i.e. see) something as red (as opposed, presumably, to grey). Whether that amounts to knowledge (in the sense that it can be fully expressed in true/false propositions) is the central issue. So I don't think you are missing anything and the proposed answer isn't a full response to the argument. But I don't have a better answer yet. Commented Apr 4, 2023 at 8:38
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    SEP calls a variant of this the Acquaintance Hypothesis of Conee that postulates "knowledge by acquaintance" as a third category in addition to propositional and ability knowledge. Whether one still calls it "knowledge" or not (as Jackson prefers) is a terminological issue, but AH allows physicalists to avoid the conclusion of the argument. Representationalist interpretations of the "phenomenal perspective" have been given by Tye and Lycan. Commented Apr 4, 2023 at 8:45
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    Merely sitting and watching any representational content in a Cartesian theatre even for a long time perhaps would never gain any virtuous knowledge for Mary since to be able to see the empirical red qualia suddenly now must indicate some sufficient albeit potentially extremely hidden reason for her to enact and utilize said redness in some future for her, in the same manner as the ancient man escaped from the Cave to be able to see the Sun for the first time. Ergo her true acquired knowledge proof is still yet to be checked later... Commented Apr 6, 2023 at 4:44
  • Mary should get out more. Maybe we all should too? Commented Sep 29, 2024 at 12:57

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So Mary has been given all the information about red except what it is like to see red. One way of "letting her out of the white room" could be to lay down some colors (includes a red object) in front of her and ask her which of the colors was she given information about. I'd put my money on she not being able to identify red i.e. if, per the recieved wisdom, everything physical was present in the info on red given to her then there's something nonphysical about Mary seeing red.

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    Right, I've often wondered about this thought experiment. Nobody ever got frostbite reading about Mount Everest. Commented Sep 9, 2024 at 10:38
  • @ScottRowe it seems very likely that I've missed the point of Mary's room. I'm commenting based on bits and pieces from discussions a coupla years ago I only half-recall. Perhaps you could clarify. Commented Sep 9, 2024 at 14:22
  • No, I agree with what you said, it fits my understanding as well. I was trying to say that feeling cold beats any description of it. Otherwise, people curled up reading in an armchair in front of a fire could die of cold. Why anyone even entertained the Mary's Room idea is beyond me. Commented Sep 9, 2024 at 23:43
  • @ScottRowe, unable to confirm/deny what you said. I have doubts regarding my (pseudo)comprehension of the thought experiment. Commented Sep 10, 2024 at 5:00
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From the perspective of brain activity, there's no mystery in what's happening to Mary.

First, Mary read a lot of books and papers about colors. This caused certain brain dynamics: her brain stored representations of textual information and black-and-white diagrams.

Then, Mary went outside and saw red. This caused different brain dynamics: her brain stored representations of color images including representations of red things.

It may become clearer if you imagine Mary is a robot taking pictures. At first the robot took pictures of only black and white scenes, so the R G B values of each pixel would all be roughly equal to each other. Then the robot took pictures of color scenes including red, so the R value of some pixels in these scenes would be high, and G and B would be low. The robot had never before recorded a pixel with a high R value and low G/B values.

So the physical representation formed when Mary goes outside her room is different. And thus, representationalists would say, it is not a surprise that the subjective experience formed when Mary goes outside her room would also be different.

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