ABSTRACT
This chapter explains a view of sensations that will, among other things, justify the claim of centrality for phenomenal qualities in the study of consciousness. It provides a neo-Lockean view that will then be supported with an argument that avoids reliance on conceivability. The chapter compares this view favorably with several physicalist views. The neo-Lockean view accepts that the correct, detailed theory of perception diverges from what most people who have not encountered the details of visual processes ordinarily think. Identity theory agrees that different kinds of sensations correspond to different kinds of neural activations, and there is no reason why these should not be the same neural activations as those embraced by qualitative event realism. But identity theory denies that the relation between neural activations and sensations is causal: instead, sensations just are neural activations.
