There are several things wrong with the zombie argument. First, it is obviously too strong, for it
rules out many theoretical identifications that have been highly successful in the history of science.
Examples mentioned earlier in this chapter included water is H
O, combustion is rapid oxidation,
heat is motion of molecules, light is electromagnetic energy, and lightning is atmospheric electrical
2
discharge. I can easily imagine that lightning is not electrical—maybe the ancient Greeks were right
that it's just the God Zeus showing his powers. But the conceivability of lightning's not being
electrical does nothing to undermine the mass of evidence, accumulated since the eighteenth century,
that it is. By far the best explanation of this evidence includes the identity hypothesis that lightning
actually is electrical discharge in the atmosphere. As I argued in Chapter 2, thought experiments are
fine for suggesting and clarifying hypotheses, but it is folly to use them to try to justify the acceptance
of beliefs.