How much work can a quale do?

Abstract

It is argued that theoretical models cannot use qualia as explanatory tools, and cannot explain them either; thus, there is no way to make qualia do any useful work at all, at least in a theory. However, qualia do occur in both imagery and perception, and this article presents some ways of thinking about qualia from a functional perspective. Imagery differs from perception in its function. It is not a faded copy of perception. It is less distinct than perception because it is only as distinct as it needs to be, not because it is inherently indistinct. Qualia represent functionally relevant encodings whether in perception or imagery. The present approach is functionalist and quite similar to Pam's (1996).