Full Idea
Halting the slide into panpsychism is the major advantage of holding that phenomenal qualities can exist unsensed.
Clarification
'Panpyschism' says consciousness exists but doesn't actually do anything. It is a side-effect of the brain.
Gist of Idea
Can phenomenal qualities exist unsensed?
Source
Michael Lockwood (Mind, Brain and the Quantum [1989], p.170)
Book Reference
Lockwood,Michael: 'Mind,Brain and the Quantum:The Compound 'I'' [Blackwell 1991], p.170
A Reaction
Presumably unsensed phenomenal qualities would explain the discovery that we seem to make decisions before we are conscious of what we intend to do. That result certainly implied that consciousness had no real function.