Phenomenal Properties as Dummy Properties

Abstract

Can the physicalist consistently hold that representational content is all there is to sensory experience and yet that two perceivers could have inverted phenomenal spectra? Yes, if he holds that the phenomenal properties the inverts experience are dummy properties, not instantiated in the physical objects being perceived nor in the perceivers' experiences. In fact, he should probably hold that phenomenal properties don't exist at all. All there are, as far as phenomenal properties go, are phenomenal property experiences.

The Projective Consciousness Model and Phenomenal Selfhood

“…Further, representationalists who want to identify phenomenal content with non-conceptual, intentional content have at the least to accept that there is some vehicular correlate of that non-conceptual content that one is indirectly but phenomenally aware of in having the content at all. Otherwise they cannot plausibly say what the difference is between two phenomenally conscious perception tokens that, by their hypothesis, must be aimed at non-existent property instances (cf., Hall, 2007; Thompson, 2008; Papineau, 2016). Thus, again, in a certain sense, we do not think the “sense datum fallacy” is actually a fallacy.…”