Federal Disability Retirement Attorney: Qualia & First Person Attribution of Mental States
Private, subjective mental states are unique by self-definition; they become public knowledge only when shared with deliberate intent, revealing the inner thoughts, private conceptual pondering, and narrative voices of the subjective “I”. Pain is similar in form, in that one can mask and keep private the experiential factor of pain, just as one can remain hidden in the private thoughts one engages. Qualia, in philosophy, has to do with the subjective experience of one’s encounter with the greater world; […]