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Chapter 1 - Acquaintance and the mind–body problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2012

By
Katalin Balog
Edited by
Simone Gozzano  and
Christopher S. Hill
Simone Gozzano
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi dell'Aquila, Italy
Christopher S. Hill
Affiliation:
Brown University, Rhode Island
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Summary

This chapter discusses the groundwork for an account of acquaintance and the consequences of the account for the metaphysics of mind. Acquaintance is a unique epistemological relation that relates a person to her own phenomenally conscious states and processes directly, incorrigibly, and in a way that seems to reveal their essence. Such an epistemic relation has struck many philosophers as deeply mysterious. The chapter dispels some of this mystery by providing an account of direct phenomenal concepts. These are the concepts deployed when a person is acquainted with her own conscious states in introspection. Consciousness appears puzzling for many reasons, not just because of the conceivability of zombies. The chapter shows that phenomenal concepts are analogous to quotation expressions and explaining how certain conceptual roles can make an operation mental quotation.
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New Perspectives on Type Identity
The Mental and the Physical
 , pp. 16 - 42
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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