A lesser mortal would simply fail to see the implications, or refuse to face them, or rationalize a reason it wasn’t so.
But that’s precisely what he’s done, not with the implications, but the implications of the implications. He’s simply denied them.
But, yes, on a core level, the sane thing to do when you see the conclusion of the zombie argument, is to say “That can’t possibly be right” and start looking for a flaw.
No, what we say is “That argument is wrong”. We’ve already found the flaw. Our emotional response is irrelevant—the logical contradiction has already been found. P-zombies-as-a-hypothesis is trying to both possess a cake and eat it, have unbroken eggs and make omelets with them at the same time. It is postulating a causative agent that does not and cannot cause anything and so cannot be tested by looking at consequences.
People like Chalmers don’t have that negative emotional response! They are convinced, in the sense of possessing conviction, that the hypothesis works, and they have that sensation because the logical short-circuit does indeed satisfy their desire to believe they have minds that are magical, not subject to logic and causality. If we go by what feels satisfying, and we have such a desire, we’ll accept p-zombies, because logical consistency is less important than satisfying our deeper desires.
People who have a deeper desire for logical consistency will note that p-zombies are a stupid, self-contradictory idea, and reject it on those grounds. No uncovering further flaws is necessary, no intuitive sense that the conclusion “doesn’t look right” and needs more investigation. Those people reject p-zombies immediately and for the obvious reasons alone, because that’s all you need.
But that’s precisely what he’s done, not with the implications, but the implications of the implications. He’s simply denied them.
No, what we say is “That argument is wrong”. We’ve already found the flaw. Our emotional response is irrelevant—the logical contradiction has already been found. P-zombies-as-a-hypothesis is trying to both possess a cake and eat it, have unbroken eggs and make omelets with them at the same time. It is postulating a causative agent that does not and cannot cause anything and so cannot be tested by looking at consequences.
People like Chalmers don’t have that negative emotional response! They are convinced, in the sense of possessing conviction, that the hypothesis works, and they have that sensation because the logical short-circuit does indeed satisfy their desire to believe they have minds that are magical, not subject to logic and causality. If we go by what feels satisfying, and we have such a desire, we’ll accept p-zombies, because logical consistency is less important than satisfying our deeper desires.
People who have a deeper desire for logical consistency will note that p-zombies are a stupid, self-contradictory idea, and reject it on those grounds. No uncovering further flaws is necessary, no intuitive sense that the conclusion “doesn’t look right” and needs more investigation. Those people reject p-zombies immediately and for the obvious reasons alone, because that’s all you need.