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Phenomenal contrast arguments: What they achieve
Author(s) -
Jorba Marta,
Vicente Agustín
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
mind and language
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1468-0017
pISSN - 0268-1064
DOI - 10.1111/mila.12248
Subject(s) - contrast (vision) , phenomenology (philosophy) , feature (linguistics) , verb , psychology , cognitive psychology , cognition , linguistics , character (mathematics) , cognitive science , epistemology , computer science , philosophy , artificial intelligence , mathematics , geometry , neuroscience
Phenomenal contrast arguments (PCAs) are normally employed as arguments showing that a certain mental feature contributes to (the phenomenal character of) experience. In this paper we examine a neglected aspect of such arguments, that is, the kind of mental episodes involved in them, and argue that this happens to be a crucial feature of the arguments. We use linguistic tools to determine the lexical aspect of verbs and verb phrases—the tests for a/telicity and for duration. We then suggest that all PCAs can show is the presence of a generic achievement‐like phenomenology, especially in the cognitive domain, which contrasts with the role that PCAs are given in the literature.

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