Qualia (singular: quale) refer to the subjective, intrinsic qualities of conscious experiences that cannot be fully described or explained by physical or functional properties alone. These are the "what it's like" aspects of our sensory and mental experiences, such as:
Qualia are the phenomenal properties of our experiences that give them their distinctive character. They are often considered to be private, ineffable (hard to put into words), and directly accessible only to the individual experiencing them.
The nature and existence of qualia are central to the "hard problem" of consciousness in philosophy of mind, which questions how subjective experiences can arise from physical processes in the brain. Some argue that qualia cannot be fully explained by physical theories, while others propose various explanations for their existence, such as emergent properties or informational theories.