There are structural, chemical properties of glucose—mimicked in saccharine and other artificial sweeteners—that cause the sweetness response in our nervous systems, but “the intrinsic, subjective sweetness I enjoy” is not an internal recreation or model of these chemical properties, nor is it a very special property in our non-physical minds that we use to decorate the perceptible things out there in the world. It is no property at all; it is a benign illusion. Our brains have tricked us into having the conviction, making the judgment, that there seems to be an intrinsically wonderful but
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