What is a theory of consciousness?

Drawing parallels between two--Dehaene vs. Tononi--theories of consciousness and Einstein’s theory of general relativity vs. Newton’s gravitational theory (Reardon, 2019) is, I’m afraid, disrespectful of not only the gravity of the theories of Newton and Einstein, but also of the very notion of theory.  Here I clarify the notions of theory and representation, a clarity that is indispensable for the materialization of the much-awaited maturation of consciousness studies into consciousness science.