Riss, Uwe V. (2026) Reframing Qualia: Phenomenal Fields, Abstraction, and the Explanatory Gap. [Preprint]

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Abstract

This paper develops a field-based account of phenomenal experience that challenges qualia-based approaches. Rather than treating qualitative features as intrinsically defined and independently specifiable, the analysis construes experiential differentiation as structured within a unified phenomenal field. On this basis, qualitative character is understood as the product of abstraction, that is, as the perpetuation of stabilized differences within ongoing experiential variation for purposes of identification, comparison, and communication. This framework provides a systematic reinterpretation of the relation between first-person and third-person perspectives as distinct modes of abstraction rather than as access to fundamentally different domains. It further explains pervasive features of experience such as variety and variation without appealing to discrete qualitative units. In this way, standard qualia-based thought experiments treat qualitative features as if they could be varied independently of the functional organization of the system. By contrast, the present account shows that this apparent independence results from abstraction, which yields qualitative features by isolating them from the field whose organization remains operative but is no longer taken into account. As a result, their independence cannot be coherently maintained. The resulting position relates qualitative and functional aspects of experience and clarifies the explanatory role of abstraction in discussions of the so-called explanatory gap.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Riss, Uwe V. uwe.riss@gmail.com 0000-0003-0123-272X
Keywords:	Consciousness, Phenomenal Field, Abstraction, Orientation, Qualitative Differentiation, Explanatory Gap, Fading Qualia
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Consciousness Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Perception General Issues > Thought Experiments
Depositing User:	Uwe V. Riss
Date Deposited:	02 Jun 2026 18:39
Last Modified:	02 Jun 2026 18:39
Item ID:	29893
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Consciousness Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Perception General Issues > Thought Experiments
Date:	May 2026
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/29893

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