Michael

There's not really any convincing involved. The character of my experience is just that of a white and gold dress, just as the character of someone el...

We know it has something to do with the cerebral cortex. Those with cortical deafness have functioning ears but damage to their primary auditory corte...

This has nothing do with talking about the world and everything to do with sight. I can see things without saying anything. I can see a white and gold...

There's no seeing "on a private internal screen". There's just seeing. Some see a white and gold dress, some see a black and blue dress. Given that di...

I'm happy to talk about brain activity rather than sense data if you prefer. Pain is a type of brain activity, not a property of whatever external wor...

That's obviously not what is meant when we say that the schizophrenic hears voices, and so obviously there is a second meaning of the word.

Not always. Sometimes we make claims about trees and colours and experience.

I would say we don't (always). When we talk about pain we're not talking about objects but about sense data. When we talk about colour we're not talki...

At first, yes. But then after a detailed scientific analysis (and assuming scientific realism is correct) we can extend it further to the cause being ...

I didn’t say that I don’t know what is causing it.

I really don’t understand you at all. Whether or not I’m blind has everything to do with whether or not I can see and nothing to do with whether or no...

Then this has nothing to do with direct and indirect realism, which concerns the nature of perception, not the nature of conversation.

I’m not saying it’s an hallucination. An hallucination is when there is some sensation that appears to be of an external world object but isn’t. What ...

This is where we will never agree. There is more to life and the world than language. Things happen that aren’t talked about. I don’t need a language ...

But you take issue with it? You seemed to accept it in the case of feeling cold. I feel cold. I feel pain. I taste a sour taste. Why can’t the same ki...

I don’t know, but I’m inclined to believe that scientific theories such as the Standard Model give us the best approximation of the nature of the exte...

This is where I think direct and indirect realists talk past each other. Do you understand what is meant when we say that the schizophrenic hears voic...

Sure, it’s perfectly correct to describe it this way. As I have said many times, this semantic argument makes no real difference. You can say that the...

I think it’s important, given that it’s the epistemological problem of perception, to distinguish between sensation and cognition. Even if we grant th...

The claim is that we directly feel cold and by virtue of that indirectly feel the Arctic air, or directly feel pain and by virtue of that indirectly f...

But many appear to disagree when it comes to the quality of visual experience. They claim that the shapes and colours that constitute images are more ...

That’s the direct realism that indirect realism was arguing against. Howard Robinson calls it phenomenological direct realism. It’s the direct realism...

You don’t appear to be using the terms “image” and “directly” in a manner that concerns the epistemological problem of perception.

These are two different claims: 1. I talk about external world objects 2. The nature of external world objects is given in my experience Yes, both the...

Only if the representation is one of resemblance. This is why I don’t like the term “representation”. I don’t think experience resembles the external ...

You don't have to be, but if you're not then you're wrong in your characterisation of direct and indirect realism.

That doesn't seem accurate. The epistemological problem of perception concerns the extent to which perception informs us about what the world is like....

What’s the actual physics of this? What mechanical process counts as “estimating external states”? Obviously you don’t believe in anything like an imm...

Then what covert response counts as seeing red? Perhaps the firing of certain neurons? I’m not suggesting that. I’m suggesting that seeing red just is...

We all use the French-derived "beef" rather than what it is: cow.

I can see without any overt response recognisable by other people who might be around. I am quite capable of sitting still, saying nothing, and seeing...

I think it’s a non-issue. I feel pain. I feel the fire. Both are correct ways of talking. The painting is made of paint. The painting is of a woman. B...

Humans are average apes.

So someone who doesn't eat the red berry can't see the red berry (correctly)? I disagree with this. I don't need to eat something to see it. I'm askin...

And when we say that the baby is in pain or scared or hungry, what are we referring to? What does it mean for it to feel something? I’ve given my answ...

So assume in some post-apocalyptic wasteland the only thing to survive is a newborn baby. Given that it has no sense of self and no language it isn’t ...

I’m sorry but I don’t do well with metaphor. What I will say is that I don’t need a second person for me to be conscious. It is both logically and phy...

Yes, that’s implied by my assumption here that consciousness is identical to a particular kind of brain activity.

I’m suggesting that we assume that what we think of as first person experience/consciousness is reducible to brain activity. I wasn’t assuming anythin...

We’re assuming brain states here, not immaterial stuff. People have headaches even if there’s no aspirin. We invented painkillers because of pain. Bec...

If that were true then we wouldn’t ask people if they’re in pain. Or for related feelings, whether or not they’re happy or sad or have a secret crush....

That’s true of every word in every circumstance. I can report that it’s raining when it isn’t.

Or like me an insomniac. Breakfast is a Huel shake and a banana.

Assume for the sake of argument that first person experience isn’t immaterial or private. Assume that it is reducible to the physical. The feeling of ...

Is it a problem that we only know about black holes by observing the effect they have on light and matter?

What he meant is that the crime of falsifying business records is a misdemeanour, but the indictment says that because they were done to commit or con...

There’s a New York state law against committing a crime to benefit an electoral candidate and I believe Bragg alluded to that in his statement. What i...

Then what else is to be said? Not sure what you’re saying here. Is it just that predictions don’t talk about the world as it presently is? That is, as...

The fact that they mean different things, with the first referring to the present and the second referring to the future.

I think it quite straightforward that it refers to the future.