La conscience imaginée

Once one rejects the interactionist dualism as a theory of the mind, the concept of quale yields a contradiction. Qua phenomenal data of consciousness it refers to an intrinsic property not explainable in terms of the natural sciences; qua data of subjective experience a quale is for the subject and must therefore be functionally efficient. In order to shun this paradox Daniel Dennett suggests challenging our intuitions concerning consciousness and setting up a new explanatory frame that would make it possible to develop a theory without the concept of quale. Though the model defended by Dennett presents several difficulties it interestingly represents an invitation to review the language-games we use to conceive consciousness.