Papineau ’ s Conceptual Dualism and the Distinctness Intuition

As part of a defense of a physicalist view of experiences, David Papineau (2002) has offered an explanation for the intuition that properties found in experiences are distinct from neural properties. After providing some necessary background, I argue that Papineau’s explanation is not the best explanation of the distinctness intuition. An alternative explanation that is compatible with dualism is offered. Unlike Papineau’s explanation, this alternative does not require us to suppose that the distinctness intuition rests on fallacious reasoning. Relations of the alternative explanation to representationalism and to cases of genuine property identity are discussed.