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. 2020 Jun 12;11:1041. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01041

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Copyright © 2020 Feinberg and Mallatt.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Some kinds of knowledge can only be obtained by experience. Knowing is of two types, experiential (left) and descriptive (right). An observer cannot fully know an experience (X at the right) without directly experiencing it, even though the experience is generated physically by neurons in a living brain (center column). The distinction here between first- and third- person points of view does not entail dualism between the brain and the mind or require a “non-physical” explanation for phenomenal consciousness. Also see Feinberg and Mallatt (2018b). Figure © Mount Sinai School of Medicine.