Discussion Questions: Week 1 (September 29)

1. Qualia

• What are they, and why are they relevant to the theory of mind?
• Can they be studied scientifically, and if so, how?
• Why do (we have the sense that) they exist? In particular, why does the perception of color exist?

2. Brain damage and theory of mind

• What are the implications of patterns of functional loss (for example Mr. I's loss of color vision followed by loss of color imagery, memory and knowledge) for theories of mind?