Seems to me like the case for the importance of verbal report as evidence may be overstated. If my friend looks and behaves like they are suffering (cringing, recoiling away, etc.), but says they are not, I would assume that they actually are suffering. I assume you would agree? That suggests that other forms of evidence are actually more important than talking about qualia.
The existence of a verbal report of qualia is strong evidence that the reporter has subjective experience (or someone they’ve learned to report this way from having subjective experience). I’m not talking about specific emotional states being reported
But you agree there are nonverbal humans who nonetheless probably have qualia, right? If you think their species indicates their capacities then I think you should take phylogenetic relatedness more seriously as a reason to expect similar mental experiences.
I wasn’t talking about the specific emotional state either. I think this example here casts some doubt on the idea that verbal report is the principal or only way that we come to believe that other humans have qualia.
Seems to me like the case for the importance of verbal report as evidence may be overstated. If my friend looks and behaves like they are suffering (cringing, recoiling away, etc.), but says they are not, I would assume that they actually are suffering. I assume you would agree? That suggests that other forms of evidence are actually more important than talking about qualia.
The existence of a verbal report of qualia is strong evidence that the reporter has subjective experience (or someone they’ve learned to report this way from having subjective experience). I’m not talking about specific emotional states being reported
But you agree there are nonverbal humans who nonetheless probably have qualia, right? If you think their species indicates their capacities then I think you should take phylogenetic relatedness more seriously as a reason to expect similar mental experiences.
I wasn’t talking about the specific emotional state either. I think this example here casts some doubt on the idea that verbal report is the principal or only way that we come to believe that other humans have qualia.