Reading guide for 10/28: Michael Tye Visual Qualia and Visual Content Revisited (Chalmers, pp. 447-456)
 
 

Tye, like Rosenthal, offers an alternative to qualia (or, rather, in his terminology, Qualia). And, while he doesn't use the device of higher order thought, his alternative is representational. This means that with him, too, there are connections with Block's discussion (in this case Block's description of access-consciousness--see p. 209, col. 1).

Tye's paper is another that is structured as replies to a series of arguments. These occupy section II, which is preceded and followed only by a short introduction and conclusion. My assignment is analogous to my suggestions for other papers of this form: choose the one or two of the arguments that you take to be the most worthy of discussion, and we'll spend the class discussion several suggestions.

Smart's "Sensations and Brain Processes" is one of the papers you've read that was structured around a series of arguments, but there is also a substantive connection with Tye's. The issues Tye discusses are related to those that appeared in the third objection Smart considered (see pp. 63f).