Book Description
Drawing on work in psychophysics, psychometrics, and sensory neurophysiology, Clark analyzes the character and defends the integrity of psychophysical explanations of qualitative facts, arguing that the structure of such explanations is sound and potentially successful.
Sensory Qualities FROM THE PUBLISHER
Many philosophers doubt that one can provide any successful explanation of sensory qualities--of how things look, feel, or seem to a perceiving subject. To provide such an explanation, one would need to explain qualitative facts in nonqualitative terms. Attempts to construct such explanations have seemed, in principle, doomed.
Austen Clark examines the strategy used in psychophysics, psychometrics, and sensory neurophysiology to explain qualitative facts. He argues that his strategy could succeed: its structure is sound and it can answer the various philosophical objections lodged against it. On this basis, Professor Clark presents an analysis of sensory qualities that offers the possibility of explaining at least some qualia, and he sketches how his scheme might eventually reduce to neurophysiology. If he is correct, we are not doomed to an eternity of mere acquaintance with our qualia.
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