File: 11 October 2026 · Source date: 11 October 2026
Setting up the thought experiment
Frank Jackson designs Mary, who grows up in a black-and-white room and learns all the physical knowledge of color vision. When Mary leaves the room and sees red for the first time, she seems to be learning something new.
Knowledge argument
The classic interpretation of the argument is this: if Mary is learning a new fact, not all facts are physical information. The ability response, however, argues that Mary is not acquiring a new proposition, but rather the ability to recognize, remember, or imagine color. Other responses suggest that old knowledge is acquired in a new form of representation.
What conclusions can we draw?
The thought experiment sharpens the relationship between subjective experience and third-person explanation; it does not prove the inaccuracy of physicism in the laboratory. The outcome depends on how the concepts of “know” and “learn something new” are interpreted.
Related reading
discussion question
Is it possible to have complete information about an experience without experiencing it?
Resources and further reading
Frank Jackson — Epiphenomenal Qualia ↗Oxford Academic — Mary the Colour Scientist collection ↗Share your answer
You must log in to reply.
No response to this article yet.
Established science, active research, and philosophical speculation are clearly separated.