Argument Formalizer

The conceivability (zombie) argument

David J. Chalmers, "Consciousness and its Place in Nature", in Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Mind, 2003

The general form, as Chalmers numbers it

valid

  1. It is conceivable that P&¬Q.

  2. If it is conceivable that P&¬Q, then it is metaphysically possible that P&¬Q.

  3. Therefore, it is metaphysically possible that P&¬Q. [1,2]

  4. If it is metaphysically possible that P&¬Q, then materialism is false.

  5. Therefore, materialism is false. [3,4]

Editor's note

The live tool could not complete this passage: its repair stage failed output validation on both attempts and the run failed closed, so no artifact exists yet. The argument shown is a hand-authored reconstruction that passed the deterministic syntax and transparent-entailment gates. It will be replaced by a tool artifact when a run succeeds. Chalmers already numbers the argument; the reconstruction keeps his wording and adds the intermediate conclusion he leaves implicit. P is the conjunction of all microphysical truths about the universe and Q is an arbitrary phenomenal truth. The live tool's failure on an already-numbered argument is the more striking result here.