While it is “only” the processing of electrical signals by the brain, we don't react by thinking, oh, there are some signals indicating injury coming in from our foot. Instead it's “Ouch, that hurt” as we subjectively experience the quale of pain. Conscious awareness itself is a quale; an emergent property of the complexity of the brain. Feelings of love; the agony of mourning; the smell of a flower. All feel very “real” to those experiencing these qualia. Although qualia are not real in an objective sense, they can be scientifically studied. Who says that science is only materialistic? And what was that about science not inspiring the qualia of “awe and wonder”?
Thursday, 8 June 2017
No God: Just Qualia
Qualia: Plural of Quale. Things that do not exist as objective realities in nature, but are "emergent properties" of consciousness. e.g. the sensation of colour. Most of us know what is meant by "green", but green (or any colour) does not exist. Sure there are wavelengths of light that we interpret as green, but the sensation of “greenness” does not correspond to an actual greenness out there in the real world. Pain also has no objective reality. Stamping on my toes and saying, “Now deny pain is real”, does not prove pain is real in the sense of an objective thing. Only that the quale of pain emerges because of conscious awareness.
While it is “only” the processing of electrical signals by the brain, we don't react by thinking, oh, there are some signals indicating injury coming in from our foot. Instead it's “Ouch, that hurt” as we subjectively experience the quale of pain. Conscious awareness itself is a quale; an emergent property of the complexity of the brain. Feelings of love; the agony of mourning; the smell of a flower. All feel very “real” to those experiencing these qualia. Although qualia are not real in an objective sense, they can be scientifically studied. Who says that science is only materialistic? And what was that about science not inspiring the qualia of “awe and wonder”?
While it is “only” the processing of electrical signals by the brain, we don't react by thinking, oh, there are some signals indicating injury coming in from our foot. Instead it's “Ouch, that hurt” as we subjectively experience the quale of pain. Conscious awareness itself is a quale; an emergent property of the complexity of the brain. Feelings of love; the agony of mourning; the smell of a flower. All feel very “real” to those experiencing these qualia. Although qualia are not real in an objective sense, they can be scientifically studied. Who says that science is only materialistic? And what was that about science not inspiring the qualia of “awe and wonder”?
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