Argument from Introspection
(Cf. Churchland IP3 291b)

Introspection tells us: There are thoughts, sensations, and emotions and these are not electrochemical impulses in a neural network.

Therefore, the theory that says that thoughts, sensations, and emotions are electrochemical impulses in a neural network (reductive materialism) is mistaken.

Churchland's reply:

In external senses (e.g. vision) we discriminate "intricate electromagnetic, stereochemical, and micromechanical properties of physical objects" without knowing we are. So also in introspection.


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Richard Lee, rlee@uark.edu, last modified: 29 November 2004