Qualia, Consciousness, and Sentience: Armchair Theories and the Explanatory Gap [2/6]

Episode 2: Armchair Theories and the Explanatory GapFocus: Traditional Philosophy and Functionalist CritiquesFunctionalism and Its Discontents: The idea that mental states are defined by causal roles rather than physical substrate.The China Brain Critique: Re-evaluating Ned Block’s "China Brain" thought experiment. The sources argue it fails due to the "Double Fallacy" (Division and Composition) and a lack of understanding regarding sensory scaling and temporal dynamics.The Explanatory Gap: Examining why a physicalist description always seems to leave out the "why" of subjective feeling.Surveying the "Armchair" Theories: A summary of five major traditional positions:Representationalism: Qualia as internal maps of the world.Intrinsicism: Qualia as "mental paint".Relationalism (Naïve Realism): Qualia as a direct relation to objects.Illusionism: The claim that qualia are a cognitive fiction.Russellian Monism: The view that consciousness is the intrinsic nature of matter.