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Questions tagged [zombies]

A philosophical zombie or p-zombie in the philosophy of mind and perception is a hypothetical being that is indistinguishable from a normal human being except in that it lacks conscious experience, qualia, or sentience while normal human beings are assumed to not lack any of these, although Dan Dennett and some others have disagreed and said that we are *all* p-zombies.

A hollywood zombie is a zombie which walks the earth, either infected with some disease or undead, searching for flesh/brains or mindlessly roaming without aim.

A philosophical zombie or p-zombie in the philosophy of mind and perception is a hypothetical being that is indistinguishable from a normal human being except in that it lacks conscious experience, qualia, or sentience, while normal human beings are assumed to not lack any of these, although Dan Dennett and some others have disagreed and said that we are all p-zombies

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Aren't we all philosophical zombies?

I've been reading about the philosophy of the mind, and I'm a bit confused. Everything I've read seems to start with the (unjustified) assumption that there is some aspect of the mind that isn't purely physical or deterministic. For example, take…
Alex
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Does anyone assert the real existence of p-zombies?

Philosophical zombies are usually presented as, let say, "conceivable" and then this assertion is used to infer dualism. Have any philosophers taken the position that p-zombies are in fact real, and, if so, what do they conclude from this? By real,…
Dave
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Is the person in the mirror an example of a philosophical zombie?

Consider the following situation: You are in a room that has a mirror as one of its walls. You assert/commit to that you are conscious and have qualia. You look at the mirror, and you observe your own image. The person in the mirror looks and…
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If zombies are possible would that imply that physicalism is false?

The SEP article on Zombies writes: Zombies in philosophy are imaginary creatures used to illuminate problems about consciousness and its relation to the physical world. Unlike those in films or witchraft, they are exactly like us in all …
stoicfury
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Does having free will presuppose consciousness, can philosophical zombies have it?

Philosophical zombies may lack a consciousness, but does this preclude the ability to have a free will? Why does consciousness matter, for agency, or at all, if determinism is real? (I've framed the question, as such, to make room for more than a…
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Is it reasonable to believe that others have sentient minds?

Obviously I'm not looking for a valid deductive proof using formal logic, but at least a relatively convincing argument. How do I know that humans who I encounter other than myself have sentient minds, and aren't just unfeeling zombies? It seems…
That Guy
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Does a philosophical zombie have mental states?

According to Chalmers, philosophical zombies are physically identical to each of us, but lack consciousness. By 'consciousness' Chalmers means the qualitative feel we often experience. The what-it's-like to be me, to taste apples, to fear ducks,…
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Zombies and Occam's razor

Consider the following scenario: (i) Due to the human's biology (or for some other reasons), everyone is actually a zombie, and there is only a handful of people (including me, the person writing this question) that actually have consciousness.…
user132181
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Can a version of the philosophical zombie concept be used to argue for libertarian freewill?

Philosophical Zombies are a thought experiment that is used to argue for dualism and against functionalism. The argument goes something like this: A purely functionalist account of the mind fails to distinguish between a person with subjective…
Alexander S King
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What is the difference between advanced AI controlled humanoid robot and philosophical zombie?

Considering a future where AI systems have advanced to create humanoid robots that can behave and appear indistinguishably human, yet remain without consciousness, could we say these AI systems are actual embodiments of the philosophical zombies? If…
user66933
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Is it immoral to kill a philosophical zombie?

Is unplugging a robot from power the same as killing a person? As the commenters said this does not quite work because robots can be plugged back in. So let's replace robots with philosophical zombies, they behave just like humans except for not…
4HonorNDFame
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How, in layman's terms, should this Conifold argument against illusionism be interpreted?

There's a discussion about philosophical zombies and illusionism going on in The Symposium, which is the main chat room for Philosophy on Stack Exchange and Conifold posted this a day or two ago (the Chat timestamp is Wed 14:02): I am skeptical of…
Matthew Christopher Bartsh
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Why do people hide the assumption contained in the philosophical zombies question/idea?

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article called "Zombies" https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/zombies/ makes no mention of an assumption that seems to be hidden in the famous philosophical zombie question. Using the search text function of my…
Matthew Christopher Bartsh
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What is the physicalist response to the explanatory gap for conciousness?

The zombie argument against physicalism usually goes like this Physically identical zombies are conceivable. If zombies are conceivable, they are metaphysically possible. Therefore physicalism is false. Many physicalists deny (2), that…
reeeeee
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Can zombies have meaningful lives?

Can zombies have meaningful lives? If not, does that mean a meaningful life is "like" something?
user6917
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