Outline Jackson's Mary Knowledge Argument [5 MARKS]

There is a neuroscientist Mary who has been confined to a black and white room all her life, she has never seen any colour except black or white. However, she knows everything she can know about the physical facts of colour, the wavelengths, speed of light etc. One day, she is led outside the room and sees a ripe red tomato. Despite the fact that she knew all the physical properties of the colour red Mary still learns something new when she sees the colour red. She learns what is like to experience the colour red, thus inferring that not all facts are physical as it is possible to know about the physical properties of the brain involved in having an experience and still not yet know about the qualia until it is experienced itself. Thus, Jackson argues that physicalism is false because non-physical facts about qualia exist.