A More Ordinary Ordinary View of the “What it is Like”-Talk

Scholars of consciousness often view the “what it is like” phrase as an easy-to-understand strategy for introducing the topic of phenomenal consciousness. But do laypeople understand and use the phrase the way scholars do? The ordinary view assumes that the ubiquity of the phrase in philosophical writings reflects an alignment with everyday language, where it purportedly refers to phenomenal consciousness. In this article, I argue that the ordinary view is incorrect, as it overestimates laypeople’s conceptual grasp of phenomenality. Instead, I propose a weaker view: laypeople use “what it is like” to describe their subjective experiences in general terms, without committing to the concept of phenomenality. This approach offers a practical entry point for exploring how ordinary language and thinking about consciousness intersect with philosophical discourse.