More qualia trouble for functionalism: The Smythies TV-hood analogy

It is the purpose of this article to explicate the logical implications of a television analogy for perception, first suggested by John R. Smythies (1956). It aims to show not only that one cannot escape the postulation of qualia that have an evolutionary purpose not accounted for within a strong functionalist theory, but also that it undermines other anti-representationalist arguments as well as some representationalist ones.I should like to thank John R. Smythies for his helpful comments and advice. This article was written at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences, in Uppsala, Sweden.