Phenomenal Consciousness: A Critical Analysis of Knowledge Argument, Inverted Spectrum Argument and Conceivability Argument
Journal of Advances in Education and Philosophy April 30, 2020 Dr. Manas Kumar Sahu 4 citations
Phenomenal consciousness—the subjective, first-person experience of being—cannot be fully explained by reductive physicalist theories. The paper argues for a non-reductive account, contending that reductionist approaches fail to capture the qualitative character of subjective experience. It examines three classic arguments—the inverted spectrum, the knowledge argument, and the conceivability argument—to show that phenomenal properties resist identification with physical or functional states. The debate hinges on two opposing commitments: reductive-naturalistic objectivism, which seeks to demystify consciousness, and phenomenal realism, which insists on the irreducibility of subjective experience.