OBJECTION TO PHYSICALISM: EXISTENCE OF QUALIA

Filozofija se loteva problema duha in telesa tako, da skuša odgovoriti na splošna vprašanja kot so: kaj je duh, je človek sestavljen iz ene ali dveh substanc, kakšno je razmerje med duhom in telesom itd. Na podlagi razvoja znanosti in novih odkritij v 19. in 20. stol. filozofi danes množično zagovarjajo fizikalistično stališče. V diplomski nalogi je prikazan razvoj materialističnega stališča skozi zgodovino in predstavitev različnih fizikalističnih odgovorov na problem duha in telesa. Kljub sodobnim znanstvenim odkritjem pa obstajajo odprte dileme, ki fizikalistično razlago sveta postavljajo pod vprašaj. Namen diplomskega dela je ugotoviti, ali fizikalizem vzdrži pod težo ugovorov Thomasa Nagla in Franka Jacksona, ki dokazujeta, da fizikalizem zanemari obstoj fenomenoloških kakovosti zavestnega doživljanja oz. takšnosti in je zato nepopoln. Po analitični razčlembi sprva zelo prepričljivega argumenta iz znanja ter predstavitvi različnih kritik argumenta sledi končna ugotovitev, da argumentu iz znanja ne uspe zavrniti fizikalizma. Problem takšnosti s tem sicer ni rešen, ohranja pa optimističen pogled v prihodnost, saj znanost še naprej pospešeno odkriva nove, popolnejše razlage.Philosophy deals with the mind-body problem by trying to answer general questions such as: what is mind, does man consist of one or two substances, what is the relationship between mind and body etc. Based on development of science and new discoveries in 19th and 20th century a great number of philosophers today support the physicalism point of view. In this diploma thesis I have presented the development of the materialistic point of view through history and various physicalistic answers to the mind-body problem. Despite modern scientific discoveries there are some dilemmas left unanswered, which question the physicalistic explanation of the world. The aim of this thesis is to determine whether physicalism can stand against the claims of Thomas Nagel and Frank Jackson who demonstrate that physicalism neglects the existence of phenomenological qualities of wilful experience (qualia) and is therefore incomplete. After a thorough analysis of the knowledge argument (which appears very strong at the beginning) and presentation of various criticisms of the argument we are left with the conclusion that the knowledge argument can not reject the physicalism. This does not solve problem of qualia but it keeps an optimistic view into the future because science is fast at discovering new, more complete explanations