You can show that they’re incoherent by (i) explicating their macro-level functional conception of heat, and then (ii) showing how the micro functional facts entail the macro functional facts.
Okay, let’s imagine this. First, to explicate “macro functional facts”, we have the examples:
causing state changes, making mercury expand in the thermometer, or whatever criteria we use to identify ‘heat’ in the world
So, you try to show someone that jiggling around the molecules of mercury will cause the mercury to expand. How exactly would you do this? I’ll try to imagine it. You present them with some mercury. You lend them an instrument which lets them see the individual molecules of the mercury. Then you start jiggling the molecules directly by some means (demonic powers maybe), and the mercury expands. Or, alternatively, you apply what they recognize as heat to mercury, and you show them that the molecules are jiggling faster. So, in experience after experience, you show them that what they recognize as heat rises if and only if the molecules jiggle faster.
This is not mere observation of correlation, because you are manipulating the molecules and the mercury by one means or another rather than passively observing.
But what they can say to you is, “I accept that there seems to be some sort of very tight relationship between the jiggling and the heat, but this doesn’t mean that the jiggling is the heat. After all, we already know that there is a tight relationship between manipulations of the brain and conscious experiences, but that doesn’t disprove dualism.”
What could you say in response? Maybe: “if you jiggle the molecules, the molecules spread apart, i.e., the mercury expands.” They could reply, “you are assuming that the molecules are identical with the mercury. But all I see is nothing but a tight correlation between where the molecules are and where the mercury is—similar to the tight correlation between where the brain is and where the conscious mind finds itself, but that doesn’t disprove dualism.”
How do you force a reluctant person to accept the identification of certain macro facts with certain micro facts?
But of course, you don’t really have to, because when people see such strong correlations, their natural inclination is to stop seeing two things and start seeing one thing. They might even lose the ability to see two things—for example, when we look at the world with our two eyes, what we see is one image with depth, rather than two flat images (though we can see the individual images by closing one eye). So of course, someone who has experienced the correlation between a micro fact and macro fact will have no trouble merging them into one fact merely seen from two perspectives (micro versus macro).
In principle, the brain could be manipulated in all sorts of ways. Nobody would be willing to submit to arbitrary manipulations, but in principle it could be done, and someone who had undergone such manipulations might develop a strong identification with his physical brain.
Okay, let’s imagine this. First, to explicate “macro functional facts”, we have the examples:
So, you try to show someone that jiggling around the molecules of mercury will cause the mercury to expand. How exactly would you do this? I’ll try to imagine it. You present them with some mercury. You lend them an instrument which lets them see the individual molecules of the mercury. Then you start jiggling the molecules directly by some means (demonic powers maybe), and the mercury expands. Or, alternatively, you apply what they recognize as heat to mercury, and you show them that the molecules are jiggling faster. So, in experience after experience, you show them that what they recognize as heat rises if and only if the molecules jiggle faster.
This is not mere observation of correlation, because you are manipulating the molecules and the mercury by one means or another rather than passively observing.
But what they can say to you is, “I accept that there seems to be some sort of very tight relationship between the jiggling and the heat, but this doesn’t mean that the jiggling is the heat. After all, we already know that there is a tight relationship between manipulations of the brain and conscious experiences, but that doesn’t disprove dualism.”
What could you say in response? Maybe: “if you jiggle the molecules, the molecules spread apart, i.e., the mercury expands.” They could reply, “you are assuming that the molecules are identical with the mercury. But all I see is nothing but a tight correlation between where the molecules are and where the mercury is—similar to the tight correlation between where the brain is and where the conscious mind finds itself, but that doesn’t disprove dualism.”
How do you force a reluctant person to accept the identification of certain macro facts with certain micro facts?
But of course, you don’t really have to, because when people see such strong correlations, their natural inclination is to stop seeing two things and start seeing one thing. They might even lose the ability to see two things—for example, when we look at the world with our two eyes, what we see is one image with depth, rather than two flat images (though we can see the individual images by closing one eye). So of course, someone who has experienced the correlation between a micro fact and macro fact will have no trouble merging them into one fact merely seen from two perspectives (micro versus macro).
In principle, the brain could be manipulated in all sorts of ways. Nobody would be willing to submit to arbitrary manipulations, but in principle it could be done, and someone who had undergone such manipulations might develop a strong identification with his physical brain.