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There is an important difference between qualia and Father Christmas which Dennett foolishly overlooks: viz, there is a convincing and vastly more plausible alternative explanation for why presents appear … expectation, however, is that we will find that the difference between the illusionists and the rest of us actually boils down to just a difference in labelling- they use the word illusion where we use qualia …

To some extent, yes, sensations are mind dependent- but not to the extent that the entire world is mind-dependent. For example, we know that some people are colour-blind, tone-deaf and so on, so there …

Firstly, the relationship between colours and notes in music is not as remarkable as you suggest, being only weakly analogous at best. In our perception of light, there is nothing analogous to an octa …

No, regardless of what theories any philosopher might put forward to explain our sense impressions- whether you consider them to be illusions, hypotheses, qualia, incoherent concepts etc- the fact remains …

Leaving aside the fact that you would have to elaborate what you envisage when you talk about small inanimate objects having qualia (the spellchecker changed that to quail, by the way, which is a bit annoying …

You say that the first para of the SEP article include the words "[Zombies] are exactly like us in all physical respects but without conscious experiences". Clearly the 'but' implies that we (ie human …

I suggest you consider one aspect of consciousness, such as colour perception. Take the colour red, for example. The quality of the mental experience you have of the colour red has no explanation in p …

Perhaps a useful notion here is calibration. With other types of sensors, such as thermometers, ammeters, odometers, and so on, a degree of confidence in their readings can be obtained by comparison w …