Qualia Is Not a Pseudoproblem: A Response to Balconi et al. (2026), 'The End of Qualia'

A response to Balconi et al.'s (2026) Frontiers in Psychology editorial proposing that qualia be retired as a pseudoproblem in Kuhn's sense. The letter argues that the collection the editorial introduces does not support its eliminative frame; that a malformed question has never licensed abandoning the phenomenon it names; and that first-person report remains the foundation on which pain science, affective neuroscience, and clinical measurement were built — the reports came first, and the instruments followed them. It concludes that retiring qualia without a successor concept that performs its duties is not a solution but an abandonment.