Editing Knowledge argument (section)

{{Short description|Thought experiment in the philosophy of mind}}

The '''knowledge argument''' (also known as '''Mary's Room''', '''Mary the Colour Scientist''', or '''Mary the super-scientist''') is a [[Philosophy|philosophical]] [[thought experiment]] proposed by [[Frank Cameron Jackson|Frank Jackson]] in his article "Epiphenomenal [[Qualia]]" (1982),<ref name=epiph>{{cite journal|last=Jackson |first=Frank |year=1982 |title=Epiphenomenal Qualia |journal=Philosophical Quarterly |volume=32 |issue=127 |pages=127–136 |doi=10.2307/2960077|jstor=2960077 |doi-access=free}}</ref> and extended in "What Mary Didn't Know" (1986).<ref name=":3">{{cite journal|last=Jackson |first=Frank |year=1986 |title=What Mary Didn't Know |journal=Journal of Philosophy |volume=83 |issue=5 |pages=291–295 |doi=10.2307/2026143|jstor=2026143}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Jackson |first=Frank |url=https://archive.org/details/natureofconsciou0000unse |title=The nature of consciousness: philosophical debates |date=2011 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-52210-6 |editor-last=Block |editor-first=Ned |edition=8th printing |series=A Bradford book |location=Cambridge, Mass. |chapter=What Mary Didn't Know |url-access=registration}}</ref> 

The experiment describes Mary, a scientist who exists in a black-and-white world where she has extensive access to physical descriptions of color, but no actual perceptual experience of color. Mary has learned everything there is to learn about color, but she has never actually experienced it for herself. The central question of the thought experiment is whether Mary will gain new knowledge when she goes outside of the colorless world and experiences seeing in color.

The experiment is intended to argue against [[physicalism]]—the view that the universe, including all that is mental, is entirely physical. Jackson says that the "irresistible conclusion" is that "there are more properties than physicalists talk about". Jackson would eventually call himself a physicalist and say, in 2023, "I no longer accept the argument" though he still feels that the argument should be "addressed really seriously if you are a physicalist".<ref>{{Citation |author-link1=Philip Goff (philosopher)|author-link2=Keith Frankish |last1=Goff |first1=Philip |last2=Frankish |first2=Keith |date=January 25, 2023 |website=YouTube |title=Mind Chat S03E03 The Greatest Argument Against Materialism |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdTSymICyf4 |access-date=2023-10-20 |language=en}}</ref>

The debate that emerged following its publication became the subject of an edited volume, ''There's Something About Mary'' (2004), which includes replies from such philosophers as [[Daniel Dennett]], [[David Lewis (philosopher)|David Lewis]], and [[Paul Churchland]].<ref>{{cite book | editor1-last = Ludlow | editor1-first = Peter | editor2-last =Nagasawa | editor2-first =Yujin | editor3-last =Stoljar | editor3-first =Daniel | title = There's Something about Mary: essays on phenomenal consciousness and Frank Jackson's knowledge argument | publisher = MIT Press | location = Cambridge | year = 2004 | isbn = 978-0-262-12272-6 }} [https://web.archive.org/web/20060919003539/http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262621894intro1.pdf Introduction] (shared by publisher, archived by [[Wayback Machine]])</ref>