Ineffability of Qualia
This post is the first part in short series on philosophy of the mind. At the end of each part, there is a link to the next.
Suppose you and I experienced red and blue differently:
You: red blue
Me: red blue
We would never be able to prove this, or even realize it. It is not possible for you to communicate your understanding of red to me, so that I could realize that it is different from my understanding of red. Our conversation might go something like this:
| Your understanding of our conversation | My understanding of our conversation |
| Blue is the color of the sky. | Blue is the color of the sky. |
| Red is the color of blood. | Red is the color of blood. |
| Blue light has a shorter wavelength than red light. Just check their sequence in the rainbow. | Blue light has a shorter wavelength than red light. Just check their sequence in the rainbow. |
| In color-space, if you go from red to purple, and continue going in that direction, you end up at blue. | In color-space, If you go from red to purple, and continue going in that direction, you end up at blue. |
| Red is a hot color. Just think of a glowing iron in the fire. | Red is a hot color. Just think of a glowing iron in the fire. |
Why is it impossible to communicate the meaning of a color? Because a color is inherently subjective. Its meaning cannot be expressed objectively. Only objective things can be communicated from one subjective perspective to another.
In the next post (What is Sentience?), we will use this idea to demonstrate that even the meaning of sentience is ineffable.