How Should Physicalism Regard The Knowledge Argument

As Kim put it, physicalism has been the most important basic framework for discussing the mind-body problem. Nevertheless the claim that "everything in the world is physical" has also been opposed by many scholars, for the thought experiment knowledge argument is one of the most famous anti-physicalist arguments. Roughly to say, it means that a very good nerves physiologist Mary who has mastered all the physical, chemical, biological knowledge about the human vision but fails to know what it looks like when she is watching a red flower, thus the fully physical knowledge is incomplete, there are non-physical things, so physicalism is wrong.Truly the knowledge argument has caused a great threat to the physicalism, but my analysis suggests that it is not sufficient to refute physicalism by itself. In another hand, as we check the strategies of physicalists’responses to knowledge argument, the physicalism also has some problems, such as the the definition of "physical" is not clear enough, being absent of exploring the model of our whole world and so on. After the reflection on the disputes between physicalism and the knowledge argument, I have discussed Kim’s very famous approach of physicalism that called "functional reductionism, to see whether it can be the more satisfied alternative version. Kim’s theory is wonderful but still fails to deal with the qualia, thus the threat of knowledge argument is still not fully resolved. Physicalism still need to find a new way out.At last, I point out that physicalists should regard the knowledge argument as a mirror which can help them to reflect on and to realize their doctrines, not only a threat to them. Our goal is not just stick to one theory or position, more importantly continuing to deepen our awareness of consciousness, mind-body relation and our existence. Therefore, we must dare to go beyond the idea of the physicalism stance. Under the guidance of the idea, I have given three approaches that may be the alternative strategy:Descriptive Physicalism, the Neutral Monism and a conceived new world picture.