So it still doesn’t show that Red is know-how in itself.
Talking about “red in itself” is a bit like talking about “the-number-1 in itself”. What does it mean? We can talk about the “redness sensation” that a person experiences, or “the experience of red”. From an anatomical point of view, experiencing red(ness) is a process that occurs in the brain. When you’re looking at something red (or imagining redness), certain neural pathways are constantly firing. No brain activity → no redness experience.
Let’s compare this to factual knowledge. How are facts stored in the brain? From what we understand about the brain, they’re likely encoded in neuronal/synaptic connections. You could in principle extract them by analyzing the brain. And where is the (knowledge of) red(ness) stored in the brain? Well there is no ‘redness’ stored in the brain, what is stored are (again in synaptic connections) instructions that activate the color-pathways of the visual cortex that produce the experience of red. See how the ‘knowledge of color’ is not quite like factual knowledge, but rather looks like an ability?
You argue as if involving neuronal activation is sufficient evidence that something is an ability. But inabilities
are as neuronal as abilitites. If someone becomes incapably drunk, that is as much as matter of neuronal activity
as anything else. But in common sense terms, it is loss of ability, not acquisition of an ability.
Talking about “red in itself” is a bit like talking about “the-number-1 in itself”. What does it mean? We can talk about the “redness sensation” that a person experiences, or “the experience of red”. From an anatomical point of view, experiencing red(ness) is a process that occurs in the brain. When you’re looking at something red (or imagining redness), certain neural pathways are constantly firing. No brain activity → no redness experience.
Let’s compare this to factual knowledge. How are facts stored in the brain? From what we understand about the brain, they’re likely encoded in neuronal/synaptic connections. You could in principle extract them by analyzing the brain. And where is the (knowledge of) red(ness) stored in the brain? Well there is no ‘redness’ stored in the brain, what is stored are (again in synaptic connections) instructions that activate the color-pathways of the visual cortex that produce the experience of red. See how the ‘knowledge of color’ is not quite like factual knowledge, but rather looks like an ability?
An ability to do what?
You argue as if involving neuronal activation is sufficient evidence that something is an ability. But inabilities are as neuronal as abilitites. If someone becomes incapably drunk, that is as much as matter of neuronal activity as anything else. But in common sense terms, it is loss of ability, not acquisition of an ability.
In an case, there are plenty of other obections to the Ability Hypothesis