Phenomenal contrast arguments: What they achieve

Abstract Phenomenal contrast arguments (PCAs) are normally employed as arguments showing that a certain mental feature contributes to (the phenomenal character of) experience. In this paper we examine a neglected aspect of such arguments, that is, the kind of mental episodes involved in them, and argue that this happens to be a crucial feature of the arguments. We use linguistic tools to determine the lexical aspect of verbs and verb phrases—the tests for a/telicity and for duration. We then suggest that all PCAs can show is the presence of a generic achievement‐like phenomenology, especially in the cognitive domain, which contrasts with the role that PCAs are given in the literature.