I don’t see how you can achieve a reductionist ontology without positing a hierarchy of qualities. In order to propose a scientific reduction, we need at least two classes, one of which is reducible to the other. Perhaps “physical” and “perceived” qualities would be more specific than “primary” and “secondary” qualities.
Regarding your question, if the “1->2 and 1->3” theory is accurate, then I suppose when we say that “red is more like violet than green”, certain wavelength ranges R are causing the human cognitive architecture to undertake some brain activity B that drives both the perception of color similarity A a well as behavior which accords with perception C.
So it follows that “But, by definition of epiphenomenalism, it’s not A that causes people to say the above sentences S1 and S2, but rather some other brain activity, call it B.” is true, but “But now by our theory of reference, subjective-red is B, rather than A.” is false. The problem comes from an inaccurate theory of reference which conflates the subset of brain activities that are a color perception A with the entirety of brain activities, which includes preconscious processes B that cause A as well as the behavior C of expressing sentences S1 and S2.
Regarding S2, I think there is an equivocation between different definitions of the word “subjective”. This becomes clear when you consider that the light rays entering your eyes are objectively red. We should expect any correctly functioning human biological apparatus to report the object as appearing red in that situation. If subjective experiences are perceptions resulting from your internal mechanisms alone, then the item in question is objectively red. If the meaning of “subjective experience” is extended to include all misreportings of external states of affairs, then the item in question is subjectively red. This dilemma can be resolved by introducing more terms to disambiguate among the various possible meanings of the words we are using.
So in the end, it still comes down to a mereological fallacy, but not the ones that non-physicalists would prefer we end up with. Does that make sense?
This is an interesting example, actually. Do we have data on how universal perceptions of color similarities, etc. are? We find entire civilizations using some strange analogies in the historical record. For example, in the last century, the Chinese felt they were more akin to Russia than the West because the Russians were a land empire, whereas Westerners came via the sea like the barbaric Japanese who had started the Imjin war. Westerners had employed similar strong arm tactics to the Japanese, forcing China to buy opium and so on. Personally, I find it strange to base an entire theory of cultural kinship on the question of whether one comes by land or sea, but maybe that’s just me.
The core problem remains that, if some event A plays no causal role in any verbal behavior, it is impossible to see how any word or phrase could refer to A. (You’ve called A “color perception A”, but I aim to dispute that.)
Suppose we come across the Greenforest people, who live near newly discovered species including the greater geckos. Greenforesters use the word “gumie” always and only when they are very near greater geckos. Since greater geckos are extremely well camouflaged, they can only be seen at short range. Also, all greater geckos are infested with microscopic gyrating gnats. Gyrating gnats make intense ultrasound energy, so whenever anyone is close to a greater gecko, their environment and even their brain is filled with ultrasound. When one’s brain is filled with this ultrasound, the oxygen consumption by brain cells rises. Greenforesters are hunter-gatherers lacking either microscopes or ultrasound detectors.
To what does “gumie” refer: geckos, ultrasound, or neural oxygen consumption? It’s a no-brainer. Greenforesters can’t talk about ultrasound or neural oxygen: those things play no causal role in their talk. Even though ultrasound and neural oxygen are both inside the speakers, and in that sense affect them, since neither one affects their talk, that’s not what the talk is about.
Mapping this causal structure to the epiphenomenalist story above: geckos are like photon-wavelengths R, ultrasound in brain is like brain activity B, oxygen consumption is like “color perception” A, and utterances of “gumie” are like utterances S1 and S2. Only now I hope you can see why I put scare quotes around “color perception”. Because color perception is something we can talk about.
I’m not sure that analogy can be extended to our cognitive processes, since we know for a fact that: 1. We talk about many things, such as free will, whose existence is controversial at best, and 2. Most of the processes causally leading to verbal expression are preconscious. There is no physical cause preventing us from talking about perceptions that our verbal mechanisms don’t have direct causal access to for reasons that are similar to the reasons that we talk about free will.
Why must A cause C for C to be able to accurately refer to A? Correlation through indirect causation could be good enough for everyday purposes. I mean, you may think the coincidence is too perfect that we usually happen to experience whatever it is we talk about, but is it true that we can always talk about whatever we experience? (This is an informal argument at best, but I’m hoping it will contradict one of your preconceptions.)
I don’t say that we can talk about every experience, only that if we do talk about it, then the basic words/concepts we use are about things that influence our talk. Also, the causal chain can be as indirect as you like: A causes B causes C … causes T, where T is the talk; the talk can still be about A. It just can’t be about Z, where Z is something which never appears in any chain leading to T.
I just now added the caveat “basic” because you have a good point about free will. (I assume you mean contracausal “free will”. I think calling that “free will” is a misnomer, but that’s off topic.) Using the basic concepts “cause”, “me”, “action”, and “thing” and combining these with logical connectives, someone can say “I caused my action and nothing caused me to cause my action” and they can label this complex concept “free will”. And that may have no referent, so such “free will” never causes anything. But the basic words that were used to define that term, do have referents, and do cause the basic words to be spoken. Similarly with “unicorn”, which is shorthand for (roughly) a “single horned horse-like animal”.
An eliminativist could hold that mental terms like “qualia” are referentless complex concepts, but an epiphenomenalist can’t.
I don’t see how you can achieve a reductionist ontology without positing a hierarchy of qualities. In order to propose a scientific reduction, we need at least two classes, one of which is reducible to the other. Perhaps “physical” and “perceived” qualities would be more specific than “primary” and “secondary” qualities.
Regarding your question, if the “1->2 and 1->3” theory is accurate, then I suppose when we say that “red is more like violet than green”, certain wavelength ranges R are causing the human cognitive architecture to undertake some brain activity B that drives both the perception of color similarity A a well as behavior which accords with perception C.
So it follows that “But, by definition of epiphenomenalism, it’s not A that causes people to say the above sentences S1 and S2, but rather some other brain activity, call it B.” is true, but “But now by our theory of reference, subjective-red is B, rather than A.” is false. The problem comes from an inaccurate theory of reference which conflates the subset of brain activities that are a color perception A with the entirety of brain activities, which includes preconscious processes B that cause A as well as the behavior C of expressing sentences S1 and S2.
Regarding S2, I think there is an equivocation between different definitions of the word “subjective”. This becomes clear when you consider that the light rays entering your eyes are objectively red. We should expect any correctly functioning human biological apparatus to report the object as appearing red in that situation. If subjective experiences are perceptions resulting from your internal mechanisms alone, then the item in question is objectively red. If the meaning of “subjective experience” is extended to include all misreportings of external states of affairs, then the item in question is subjectively red. This dilemma can be resolved by introducing more terms to disambiguate among the various possible meanings of the words we are using.
So in the end, it still comes down to a mereological fallacy, but not the ones that non-physicalists would prefer we end up with. Does that make sense?
This is an interesting example, actually. Do we have data on how universal perceptions of color similarities, etc. are? We find entire civilizations using some strange analogies in the historical record. For example, in the last century, the Chinese felt they were more akin to Russia than the West because the Russians were a land empire, whereas Westerners came via the sea like the barbaric Japanese who had started the Imjin war. Westerners had employed similar strong arm tactics to the Japanese, forcing China to buy opium and so on. Personally, I find it strange to base an entire theory of cultural kinship on the question of whether one comes by land or sea, but maybe that’s just me.
The core problem remains that, if some event A plays no causal role in any verbal behavior, it is impossible to see how any word or phrase could refer to A. (You’ve called A “color perception A”, but I aim to dispute that.)
Suppose we come across the Greenforest people, who live near newly discovered species including the greater geckos. Greenforesters use the word “gumie” always and only when they are very near greater geckos. Since greater geckos are extremely well camouflaged, they can only be seen at short range. Also, all greater geckos are infested with microscopic gyrating gnats. Gyrating gnats make intense ultrasound energy, so whenever anyone is close to a greater gecko, their environment and even their brain is filled with ultrasound. When one’s brain is filled with this ultrasound, the oxygen consumption by brain cells rises. Greenforesters are hunter-gatherers lacking either microscopes or ultrasound detectors.
To what does “gumie” refer: geckos, ultrasound, or neural oxygen consumption? It’s a no-brainer. Greenforesters can’t talk about ultrasound or neural oxygen: those things play no causal role in their talk. Even though ultrasound and neural oxygen are both inside the speakers, and in that sense affect them, since neither one affects their talk, that’s not what the talk is about.
Mapping this causal structure to the epiphenomenalist story above: geckos are like photon-wavelengths R, ultrasound in brain is like brain activity B, oxygen consumption is like “color perception” A, and utterances of “gumie” are like utterances S1 and S2. Only now I hope you can see why I put scare quotes around “color perception”. Because color perception is something we can talk about.
I’m not sure that analogy can be extended to our cognitive processes, since we know for a fact that: 1. We talk about many things, such as free will, whose existence is controversial at best, and 2. Most of the processes causally leading to verbal expression are preconscious. There is no physical cause preventing us from talking about perceptions that our verbal mechanisms don’t have direct causal access to for reasons that are similar to the reasons that we talk about free will.
Why must A cause C for C to be able to accurately refer to A? Correlation through indirect causation could be good enough for everyday purposes. I mean, you may think the coincidence is too perfect that we usually happen to experience whatever it is we talk about, but is it true that we can always talk about whatever we experience? (This is an informal argument at best, but I’m hoping it will contradict one of your preconceptions.)
I don’t say that we can talk about every experience, only that if we do talk about it, then the basic words/concepts we use are about things that influence our talk. Also, the causal chain can be as indirect as you like: A causes B causes C … causes T, where T is the talk; the talk can still be about A. It just can’t be about Z, where Z is something which never appears in any chain leading to T.
I just now added the caveat “basic” because you have a good point about free will. (I assume you mean contracausal “free will”. I think calling that “free will” is a misnomer, but that’s off topic.) Using the basic concepts “cause”, “me”, “action”, and “thing” and combining these with logical connectives, someone can say “I caused my action and nothing caused me to cause my action” and they can label this complex concept “free will”. And that may have no referent, so such “free will” never causes anything. But the basic words that were used to define that term, do have referents, and do cause the basic words to be spoken. Similarly with “unicorn”, which is shorthand for (roughly) a “single horned horse-like animal”.
An eliminativist could hold that mental terms like “qualia” are referentless complex concepts, but an epiphenomenalist can’t.