Everett, Anthony [1996] 'Qualia and Vagueness', Synthèse 106, pp. 205-26.
Abstract:
In this paper I present two arguments against the thesis that we experience
qualia. I argue that if we experienced qualia then these qualia would have
to be essentially vague entities. And I then offer two arguments, one a
reworking of Gareth Evans' argument against the possibility of vague
objects, the other a reworking of the Sorites argument, to show that no such
essentially vague entities can exist. I consider various objections but
argue that ultimately they all fail. In particular I claim that the stock
responses to the Sorites argument fail against my reworking of the argument
because they require us to make a distinction between a determinate reality
and how that reality appears to us, whereas in the case of qualia we can
make no such distinction. I conclude that there can be no such things as
qualia.