I hate the term “illusionism” for a lot of reasons. I think qualia is an incoherent concept, but I would prefer to use the term “qualia quietist” rather than illusionist. This paper by Pete Mandik summarizes what I think more or less https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/199235518.pdf
I think the question of “why it’s like something rather than not” is just like the question “why is there something rather than nothing” or “why am I me and not someone else?” These questions are unanswerable on their own terms.
I’m coming at this from an absolutely insane angle, but I think I’ve figured out the important thing that those questions miss—or at least another way to put what’s already been said. “Consciousness” cannot be described using positive definitions. This is due to an indexicality error. Your “experience” is everything there is—not in a solipsistic sense, but in the much more important sense that the notion of anything outside of experience is itself happening in experience. As this applies to the future and the past, every perception occurs in a totally “stateless” environment, in which all indication is a sleight of hand. You can’t think about the totality of your attention, only shift the focal point of the lens. One of the things we can shift the lens to is a symbol of the whole thing, but that’s strictly a component of it. In the only relevant sense, you are always focused on everything there is, and any attempt to look at consciousness or answer the question “why is it like anything at all?” is like a snake trying to eat its own mouth. It’s not “like” anything because “likeness” is a comparative term used here to describe one thing relative to an incoherent notion.
I hate the term “illusionism” for a lot of reasons. I think qualia is an incoherent concept, but I would prefer to use the term “qualia quietist” rather than illusionist. This paper by Pete Mandik summarizes what I think more or less https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/199235518.pdf
I think the question of “why it’s like something rather than not” is just like the question “why is there something rather than nothing” or “why am I me and not someone else?” These questions are unanswerable on their own terms.
I’m coming at this from an absolutely insane angle, but I think I’ve figured out the important thing that those questions miss—or at least another way to put what’s already been said. “Consciousness” cannot be described using positive definitions. This is due to an indexicality error. Your “experience” is everything there is—not in a solipsistic sense, but in the much more important sense that the notion of anything outside of experience is itself happening in experience. As this applies to the future and the past, every perception occurs in a totally “stateless” environment, in which all indication is a sleight of hand. You can’t think about the totality of your attention, only shift the focal point of the lens. One of the things we can shift the lens to is a symbol of the whole thing, but that’s strictly a component of it. In the only relevant sense, you are always focused on everything there is, and any attempt to look at consciousness or answer the question “why is it like anything at all?” is like a snake trying to eat its own mouth. It’s not “like” anything because “likeness” is a comparative term used here to describe one thing relative to an incoherent notion.