?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.title=Towards+a+Scientific+Account+of+Experience&rft.creator=Nicholson%2C+Dennis&rft.subject=Philosophy+of+Mind&rft.description=I+outline+and+develop+a+particular+physicalist+perspective+on+qualia%2C+and+suggest+that+it+may+be+the+basis+of+a+correct+account+of+the+relationship+of+mental+states+to+the+physical+world.%0D%0A%0D%0AAssume+that+a+quale+is+a+perspective+on+a+physical+state+in+the+organism+%E2%80%93+the+reality+as+known+as+distinct+from+the+reality+as+such+%E2%80%93+but+that+the+perspective%2C+though+it+entails+irreducible+experiential+knowledge%2C+has+no+physical+substance+over+that+encompassed+in+the+physical+state+itself.+Assume+this+physical+state+is+also+a+brain+state.+The+position+is+a+useful+one.+First%2C+reductionist+physicalism+is+true%2C+but+experiential+qualities+are+irreducible+physical+knowledge%2C+and+a+required+part+of+our+physical+world+view.+Second%2C+experiences+are+not+additional+problems+over+those+addressed+externally%2C+but+only+how+these+problems+seem+when+known+internally+%E2%80%93+an+experience+just+is+the+physical+state+that+underlies+its+external+counterpart%2C+and+the+same+standard+scientific+account+suffices+to+explain+both%2C+permitting+a+science+of+consciousness+to+develop+by+applying+the+same+standard+external%E2%80%93observer%E2%80%93based+methods+adopted+in+older+scientific+disciplines.++Finally%2C+challenges+to+physicalism+associated+with+the+%E2%80%98unbridgeable+gap%E2%80%99%2C+Leibniz's+Law%2C+Jackson's+knowledge+argument%2C+and+Chalmers'+hard+problem+of+consciousness+are+successfully+countered.%0D%0A&rft.date=2008&rft.type=Preprint&rft.type=NonPeerReviewed&rft.format=application%2Fpdf&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F6169%2F2%2FCogTowardsSciExp.pdf&rft.identifier=++Nicholson%2C+Dennis++(2008)+Towards+a+Scientific+Account+of+Experience.++%5BPreprint%5D+++++&rft.relation=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F6169%2F