Quining diet qualia.
Consciousness and cognition June 1, 2012 Keith Frankish 47 citations
The paper argues that the concept of 'diet qualia'—a watered-down version of classic qualia that strips away their intrinsic, ineffable, and subjective properties—has no distinctive content. Classic qualia are traditionally understood as intrinsic, ineffable, and subjective features of experience. The author contends that once these properties are removed, nothing phenomenal remains to be explained. Therefore, if one rejects classic qualia realism, the only thing left to explain is our disposition to judge that experiences have classic qualia—what the author calls 'zero' qualia. The paper concludes that diet qualia should be abandoned, following Dennett's suggestion to 'quine' them.