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Epiphenomenal Qualia

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Philosophy QualiaKnowledge ArgumentMary's Room

By Frank Jackson

Summary

Mary knows everything physical about colour vision but has lived in a black-and-white room. Upon seeing red for the first time, she learns something new — therefore physicalism is false. Qualia are non-physical but epiphenomenal (causally inert).

Why It Matters

The Knowledge Argument is one of the most powerful and debated objections to physicalism. Hundreds of replies published.

Notes

This entry is a seed import from the Phase 1 Knowledge Inventory. It has not yet been manually reviewed.