If a doctor asks a patient whether he is in pain, and the patient says yes, the doctor may question whether the patient is honest. But he doesn’t entertain the hypothesis that the patient is honest but mistaken.
Nothing in this situation uses certain self-knowledge of moment of experience. Patient can’t communicate it—communication takes time, so it can be spoofed. More importantly, if patient’s knowledge of pain is wrong in the same sense it can be wrong later (that patient says and thinks that they are not in pain, but they actually are and so have perfectly certain knowledge of being in pain, for example), the doctor should treat it the same way as patient misremembering the pain. Because the doctor cares about the state of patient’s brain, not their perfectly certain knowledge. Because calling “being in a state” “knowledge” is epiphenomenal.
Another way to illustrate this, is that you can’t describe your pain with perfect precision, you can’t perfectly tell apart levels of pain. So if you can’t be sure which pain you are feeling, why insist you are sure you are feeling pain instead of pressure? What exactly you are sure about?
And, obviously, the actual reason doctors don’t worry about it in practice, is that it’s unlikely, not because it’s impossible.
though since it is about an external fact, it is itself not sufficient for knowledge.
What does “external” mean? Can I answer the doctor everything about chemical composition of air if I decide air is a part of me? Can I be wrong about temperature of my brain? About me believing that a supermarket is around the corner?
I think it’s the opposite: there is no reason to hypothesize that you need a second, additional mental state in order to know that you are in the first mental state.
One reason is that is how every other knowledge works—one thing gains knowledge about other by interacting with it. Another reason—perfectly certain self-knowledge works differently. And we already have contradiction-free way to describe it—“being in a state”. Really, the only reason for calling it perfectly certain knowledge is unjustified intuition.
Another reason is that it’s not really just a hypothesis, when you in fact have parts other than some specific qualia. And these other parts implement knowledge in the way that allows it to be wrong the same way memories can be wrong. So you’ll have potentially wrong knowledge about qualia anyway—defining additional epiphenomenal perfectly certain self-knowledge wouldn’t remove it.
Nothing in this situation uses certain self-knowledge of moment of experience. Patient can’t communicate it—communication takes time, so it can be spoofed. More importantly, if patient’s knowledge of pain is wrong in the same sense it can be wrong later (that patient says and thinks that they are not in pain, but they actually are and so have perfectly certain knowledge of being in pain, for example), the doctor should treat it the same way as patient misremembering the pain. Because the doctor cares about the state of patient’s brain, not their perfectly certain knowledge. Because calling “being in a state” “knowledge” is epiphenomenal.
Another way to illustrate this, is that you can’t describe your pain with perfect precision, you can’t perfectly tell apart levels of pain. So if you can’t be sure which pain you are feeling, why insist you are sure you are feeling pain instead of pressure? What exactly you are sure about?
And, obviously, the actual reason doctors don’t worry about it in practice, is that it’s unlikely, not because it’s impossible.
What does “external” mean? Can I answer the doctor everything about chemical composition of air if I decide air is a part of me? Can I be wrong about temperature of my brain? About me believing that a supermarket is around the corner?
One reason is that is how every other knowledge works—one thing gains knowledge about other by interacting with it. Another reason—perfectly certain self-knowledge works differently. And we already have contradiction-free way to describe it—“being in a state”. Really, the only reason for calling it perfectly certain knowledge is unjustified intuition.
Another reason is that it’s not really just a hypothesis, when you in fact have parts other than some specific qualia. And these other parts implement knowledge in the way that allows it to be wrong the same way memories can be wrong. So you’ll have potentially wrong knowledge about qualia anyway—defining additional epiphenomenal perfectly certain self-knowledge wouldn’t remove it.