Frank Jackson's 'What Mary Didn't Know' Flashcards

Key philosophical concepts, arguments, and objections from Frank Jackson's 1986 paper 'What Mary Didn't Know'.

Physicalism

The thesis that the actual world is entirely physical, which entails that complete physical knowledge is complete knowledge simpliciter.

$$W(P)$$

A hypothetical world that agrees with our world in all matters physical, and for which complete physical knowledge is complete knowledge.

The Knowledge Argument

The argument against physicalism contending that Mary knows all physical facts from a black-and-white environment, yet learns something new upon release (such as what it is like to see red), proving physicalism is false.

Intensionality of Knowledge

The logical condition where a subject $S$ knows that $a$ is $F$ and that $a = b$, but fails to know that $b$ is $F$; Jackson notes this logical failure is not the basis of Mary's knowledge deficit.

Knowledge About the Experiences of Others

The specific knowledge Mary lacked prior to release, consisting of factual information regarding a feature of others' experiences (such as seeing ripe tomatoes or the sky) that was conspicuous to them but hidden from her.

Churchland's First Objection

The claim by Paul M. Churchland that the knowledge argument equivocates on the phrase 'knows about' and misuses Leibniz's law by contrasting knowledge by description of brain states with knowledge by acquaintance of sensations.

Knowledge How vs. Knowledge That

A distinction raised by Laurence Nemirow and David Lewis asserting that upon release Mary acquires an imaginative or representational ability rather than new factual knowledge.

Parity of Reasons Objection

Paul M. Churchland's objection that the knowledge argument proves too much because Mary would still learn something upon release even if she had received black-and-white television lectures on qualia and ectoplasm from a dualist.

Faculty of Imagination

A mental capacity that Jackson characterizes as a fallback for those who lack knowledge, maintaining that Mary's situation is defined by what she would not know rather than what she could not imagine.