Phenomenal internalism

I shall call those philosophers who hold that phenomenal character supervenes on internal constitution (where the term phenomenal character is understood as explained earlier) phenomenal internalists. On this view, it is metaphysically impossible for intrinsic duplicates to differ with respect to the phenomenal character of their internal states. Until recently, phenomenal internalism was almost universally accepted in the philosophy of mind. With the rise of representationalism, however, the view has begun to feel some pressure (Byrne, 2001 Dretske, 1995 Jackson, 2002b Lycan, 1996 Tye, 1995, 2000). For if the phenomenal character of a state is (or supervenes on) its representational content (or a representational content the state has that meets certain further conditions, e.g., with respect to the functional role it plays) and content brings in external factors, then prima facie it is metaphysically possible for intrinsic duplicates to differ phenomenally. 

One reaction the phenomenal internalist might have to my argument is to say so much the worse for physicalism. As will become clear later, this reaction requires the phenomenal internalist to be a dualist not only about phenomenal character but also about the representational properties of mental states. Dualism of any sort is problematic dualism this broad, doubly so. In the present context, however, my aim is not to refute the dualist. I am content to show here that a choice needs to be made either give up phenomenal internalism or give up physicalism. 

Given physicalism, the thesis of phenomenal internalism reduces to the thesis that it is metaphysically impossible for microphysical duplicates to differ with respect to the phenomenal character of their internal states. To refute this thesis, it suffices to produce an example of two entities that are microphysical duplicates in some metaphysically possible world W without the two entities being phenomenal duplicates in W. It is to the task of constructing such an example that I turn in Sections I and II. 

This view will not be shared by everyone. Some will no doubt dig in their heels and insist that XPi is a brain and that it does have phenomenally identical experiences for the fifteen-minute period, however strange that initially seems. StiU at a minimum, even those philosophers who react in this way should agree that the example raises a serious doubt as to whether any two microphysical duplicates must be alike phenomenally. Thus, the Xenon tree example at least that phenomenal internalism is not a position that is self-evidently tme or one that cannot reasonably be disputed. 

I conclude that phenomenal internalism is a view we have no reason whatsoever to accept and serious reason to question (at least if physicalism is true). It is no more or less than a dogma, a hangover from an outdated Cartesian conception of the mind. The time has come to take phenomenal externalism very seriously indeed. 

Phenomene d Oklo, Proceedings of a Symposium on the Oklo Phenomenon, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Proceedings Series, 1975. Natural Fission Reactions, IAEA, Vienna, Panel Proceedings Series STI/PUB/475, 1978, 754 pp. R. West, Natural nuclear reactors. J. Chem. Ed. 53, 336-40 (1976). 

THL.29. I. Prigogine et P. Mazur, Sur 1 extension de la thermodynamique aux phenomenes irreversibles lies aux degres de hbeerte internes (On the extension of thermodynamics to the irreversible phenomena related to internal degrees of freedom), Physica 19, 241-254 (1953). 

The resources, interactions, requirements, and professional contact were all state of the art.. enjoyed an international reputation in chemistry. I would sit out in the hallway and discuss with him problems that had occurred in the classroom. Accessibility to the faculty and other resources was nothing short of phenomenal. I know what helped me survive grad school atj(a prestigious department) was the fact that I graduated from a black school that trained be to be a total individual. So, when I came throu a system which was non-supportive of whom I was as a person, not only intellectually but all other parts of me were rejected. Internally, I knew that had the capability and I could succeed. 

The field of scanning tunneling microscopy has enjoyed a rapid and sustained growth, phenomenal for a new branch of science. The growing number of papers presented at the six International STM Conferences documents the rising interest in this field ... 

My theory is this time is not real... Despite all the change we see, a specific permanent landscape underlies the world of change and this invisible underlying landscape is that of the Bible it, specifically, is the period immediately following the death and resurrection of Christ it is, in other words, the time period of the Book of Acts. [There is] internal evidence...that another reality, an unchanging one, exactly as Parmenides and Plato suspected, underlies the visible phenomenal world of change... and we can cut through to it. Thousands of years pass, but the world of the Bible is concealed beneath it, still there and still real. 

The disadvantages shown in Table 1 continue to be areas for research and development, and progress is made everyday toward overcoming these challenges. One example of the amount of research and development in the area of strain development is the number of patents found using Scifinder. In the last 20 yr, approximately 340 bacterial strain patents, 150 yeast strain patents, 1300 plant cell patents, 4300 hybridoma cell patents, and 2700 transgenic plant patents have been issued internationally. The number of journal articles published is phenomenal. 

Pateyron, B. Interaction entre phenomenes de transport et processus de metallurgie par plasma. Rapport interne Laboratoire de Thermodynamique Univers. Limc, June 1978... 

Bottled waters are alternatives to drinking water from the tap. The term bottled water is a generic term that describes all water sold in containers. The consumption of bottled water has risen phenomenally over the past years and the bottled water industry has grown to accommodate the demand [47]. Bottled waters are classified as a food material. They are monitored by the national food agencies and some international institutions. Many countries require the manufacturer to indicate the source of the water and the date of production on the label. The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) also inspects its members annually to check for compliance to the IBWA standards. In the United States, bottled waters are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and state governments. 

The hectic pace at which modern science is advancing is broadly reflected in the fact that its literature references have a doubling period of about a decade, and the pace of this progress is being further accelerated with time. The phenomenal march of science thus holds out a challenge to our own and other developing countries which are late starters in the field, because if they want to catch up with scientific developments on the international level, their progress wil have to be at a vastly faster pace than in the... 

I say prima facie here since there is a weaker form of phenomenal externalism that has it that even though phenomenal character is partly constituted by causal relations to external entities, other downstream factors enter into it that preclude internal duplicates from differing phenomenally when the normal causes of, or normal environments for, their internal states differ. This form of externalism is compatible with phenomenal... 

This might be the reaction of Jaegwon Kim. Although Kim does not take up the issue of internalism versus externalism directly in his 2005, it is clear from his remarks (pp. 172-5) that he remains a phenomenal internalist. It is also clear that he rejects physicalism for individual qualia or phenomenal characters. However, my argument creates trouble for Kim, since he is not a dualist about the representational properties of mental states. 

However, the property of being a brain obviously is not a plausible candidate for the role of extrinsic property that guarantees phenomenal sameness in microphysical duplicates that are brains. So, what is the crucial extrinsic property It is, I suggest, radically unclear. Moreover, to suppose that there is such a property is to place an emphasis on the extrinsic that is not really in the spirit of internalism anyway. 

The notion of reflexivity might be of some help here to put it succinctly, suture means that external difference is always an internal one, that the external limitation of a field of phenomena always reflects itself within this field, as its inherent impossibility to fully become itself. To take the elementary example of sexual difference in a patriarchal society, the external limit/opposition that divides women from man also functions as the inherent obstacle which prevents women from fully realizing their potentials. We can see how, in this precise sense, suture is the exact opposite of the illusory self-enclosed totality that successfully erases the decentered traces of its production process suture means precisely that such self-enclosure is a priori impossible, that the excluded externality always leaves its traces within—or, to put it in the standard Freudian terms, that there is no repression (from the scene of phenomenal selfexperience) without the return of the repressed. 

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