Time, Form and the Limits of Qualia

Robbins, Stephen E (2007) Time, Form and the Limits of Qualia. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 28 (1). pp. 19-43.

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Abstract

Our understanding of qualia is extremely weak when considerations of time are brought into play. Ignored has been the fact that the scale of time imposed by the brain on the events of the matter-field already defines quality, and that there is an essential “primary memory” or continuity of time that underlies all qualitative events. This weakness is magnified when the concept of qualia is applied to form. The origin of the dilemma rests in the fact that the problem of qualia is posed in the context of an abstract space and time. When the time-evolution of the matter-field is taken as indivisible or non-differentiable, the problem can be reposed. It becomes a problem of the optimal specification of properties of an already qualitative matter-field at a particular scale of time.

Comments/Discussion

This article is a direct assault on the problem of qualia. The article, "Bergson and the Holographic Theory of Mind," left the repercussions for the qualia subject a bit more implicit. Though the arguments are similar, the article is intended to spell out the implications for qualia directly.

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