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related 5.78 — strongly supporting 54 facts
Consciousness and physicalism are fundamentally linked through the 'mind-body problem,' where physicalism attempts to explain consciousness as a physical phenomenon {fact:38, fact:39, fact:40}. This relationship is characterized by ongoing debates regarding whether physicalism can successfully account for the emergence of consciousness {fact:2, fact:14, fact:23} or if the explanatory gap necessitates alternative frameworks like panpsychism {fact:5, fact:6, fact:31}.
Facts (54)
Sources
Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness cambridge.org 9 facts
claimThe zombie argument posits that if consciousness is constituted by a physical state, it should be metaphysically impossible for that physical state to exist without consciousness; however, because it is conceivable for the physical state to exist without consciousness, the argument concludes that physicalism is false.
claimPhysicalism is the view that everything, including consciousness, is identical to or constituted by physical states or processes whose properties are all physical.
claimPhysicalism implies that consciousness is nothing over and above the physical, regardless of whether it is described as realized by, reducible to, grounded in, or constituted by the physical.
claimDual-aspect panpsychism reverses physicalism by positing that the physical is realized by the mental or protomental, or by regarding the physical as software and consciousness as the hardware.
claimPhysicalism is the view that the fundamental constituents of reality can be fully described by completed physics that is roughly continuous with current physics and does not treat consciousness or protoconsciousness as fundamental.
claimThe hypothesis that consciousness is superposition-resistant is compatible with both dualism and physicalism, as the physicalist version posits that the physical basis of consciousness is what is superposition-resistant.
claimPhysicalism is the predominant view among philosophers and theorists that consciousness is a purely physical phenomenon.
claimConsciousness being fundamental is typically regarded as a defining feature of most non-physicalist theories, rather than physicalism.
claimPhysicalism is considered the default theory of consciousness in contemporary philosophy and science, largely due to arguments such as the argument from physical causal closure.
Panpsychism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu 7 facts
claimThe continuing failure of physicalists to provide a satisfying account of consciousness toward the end of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century has led many philosophers to explore panpsychism as an alternative.
perspectivePhysicalists argue that an entirely reductive account of consciousness is possible, whereas panpsychists argue that consciousness is fundamental.
claimPanqualityism is considered a middle ground between panpsychism and physicalism because it posits that the qualitative aspect of consciousness is fundamental while maintaining a reductive view of subjectivity.
referenceDerk Pereboom examined consciousness, physicalism, and intrinsic properties in a 2015 publication.
perspectiveProponents of panpsychism view the theory as a middle ground between physicalism and dualism, as it avoids the disunity of dualism and the difficulty physicalism faces in explaining the emergence of consciousness.
referenceDerk Pereboom authored the book 'Consciousness and the Prospects of Physicalism' in 2011.
perspectivePanpsychists often motivate their view by rejecting physicalism, frequently using conceivability arguments to claim that physical facts about the body and brain cannot wholly account for the facts about consciousness.
Critique of Panpsychism: Philosophical Coherence and Scientific ... thequran.love 6 facts
perspectivePanpsychism aims to capture the truths of both physicalism, which posits the unity of nature without supernatural mind-stuff, and dualism, which asserts the reality of the mind, by ensuring consciousness is causally relevant.
claimRussellian panpsychism differs from traditional dualism because it does not posit a separate substance of mind, and it differs from standard physicalism because it asserts that current physical science cannot fully describe matter without including consciousness.
perspectiveGalen Strawson argues that true physicalism, defined as a physicalism that does not deny the reality of consciousness, necessitates panpsychism.
claimPanpsychism claims to avoid the eliminativist or epiphenomenalist tendencies of hardline physicalism by refusing to treat consciousness as an illusion or a byproduct with no causal power.
claimPanpsychism has encouraged interdisciplinary dialogue by challenging physicalists to explain why consciousness arises late in development and requiring panpsychists to engage with complex systems theory and neuroscience.
perspectiveStrawson insists that panpsychism is "real physicalism" and criticizes fellow materialists for implicitly being dualists when they exclude consciousness from the physical world.
Panpsychism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 Edition) plato.stanford.edu 4 facts
claimZach Blaesi (2021) constructed a moral parody argument against panpsychism, suggesting that if one argues that pre-theoretical beliefs about consciousness must be grounded in fundamental experience because physicalism and dualism are inadequate, one should also accept 'panmoralism'—the idea that moral facts are grounded in fundamental normative properties of micro-level entities.
perspectivePanpsychists often motivate their view by rejecting physicalism, arguing that physicalist accounts of consciousness are implausible.
claimRussellian monism is proposed as a potential solution to the problems facing both dualism and physicalism by integrating consciousness into the material world and accounting for the causal role of human consciousness.
referenceA common argument against physicalism, cited by Chalmers (2009) and Goff (2017), is that one can conceive of physical facts of the body and brain obtaining in the absence of facts about consciousness, implying physical facts cannot wholly account for the facts about consciousness.
Resolving the evolutionary paradox of consciousness link.springer.com 3 facts
claimSubjective experience, or consciousness, does not feature as a cause, effect, substance, or property within the laws of the closed physical system defined by physicalism.
perspectiveExplaining how the character of sensations could be naturally selected is difficult regardless of whether one adopts physicalism, dualism, or panpsychism as a metaphysical perspective on the nature of consciousness.
claimReconciling sensational associative learning with physicalism is difficult because there is no well-established, intelligible way that consciousness itself fits within the broader physicalist framework.
Hard problem of consciousness - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 3 facts
claimIn 2002, David Chalmers published a Moorean argument against illusionism, asserting that the reality of consciousness is more certain than any theoretical commitments to physicalism because humans have direct "acquaintance" with consciousness.
claimPhysicalism posits that everything, including consciousness, can be explained by appealing to its microphysical constituents.
perspectiveJoseph Levine considers the possibility that the explanatory gap between consciousness and the physical world is merely an epistemological problem for physicalism, rather than evidence that consciousness is non-physical.
Philosophical perspectives on consciousness | Humans - Vocal Media vocal.media 3 facts
claimPhysicalism, also known as materialism, argues that consciousness arises entirely from physical processes within the brain, meaning mental states are identical to neural states.
claimFunctionalism is a branch of physicalism that suggests consciousness is defined by functional processes rather than the specific physical substrate.
claimThere is no consensus on the nature or origins of consciousness among the various philosophical perspectives, including dualism, physicalism, idealism, panpsychism, and non-Western philosophies.
Hard Problem of Consciousness | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu 2 facts
perspectiveWeak reductionists maintain adherence to physicalism because denying that consciousness is physical would render consciousness epiphenomenal, which is viewed as implausible.
referenceDavid Papineau authored 'Physicalism, consciousness, and the antipathetic fallacy', published in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy in 1993.
Panpsychism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu 2 facts
claimThe argument that physicalism fails to explain consciousness has been discussed since the time of the Presocratics.
referenceThe Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Panpsychism lists related entries including George Berkeley, consciousness, René Descartes, dualism, emergent properties, epiphenomenalism, Charles Hartshorne, William James, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, mereology, monism, neutral monism, pantheism, physicalism, qualia, quantum theory and consciousness, Josiah Royce, Baruch Spinoza, Alfred North Whitehead, and Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt.
Dualism, Physicalism, and Philosophy of Mind - Capturing Christianity capturingchristianity.com 2 facts
perspectiveThe author of the Capturing Christianity series previously believed that neuroscientific discoveries regarding brain-mental state correlations rendered the dualist belief in consciousness as something 'over and above the physical' to be a gratuitous hypothesis.
claimSome physicalists, including Alexander Rosenberg, acknowledge that there is an irresolvable tension between consciousness and physicalism, forcing a choice between the two.
Panpsychism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2015 Edition) plato.stanford.edu 2 facts
claimModern physicalistic theories of mind implicitly rely on a theory of emergence, though none have yet provided a fully satisfactory account of the emergence of consciousness.
referenceGalen Strawson authored 'Consciousness and Its Place in Nature: Does Physicalism Entail Panpsychism?', edited by A. Freeman and published in 2006 by Imprint Academic.
The Hard Problem of Consciousness | Springer Nature Link link.springer.com 2 facts
perspectiveNikolaus von Stillfried emphasizes that he does not doubt the existence of consciousness, viewing experience as a fundamental empirical fact, which leads him to find solipsism more plausible than physicalism.
claimA non-reductive account of consciousness requires alternative ontological models that diverge from physicalist monism by suggesting additional ontic categories, such as the 'phenomenal,' to fully explain consciousness.
Dualism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Winter 2016 Edition) plato.stanford.edu 1 fact
claimPhilosophical concepts related to the mind-body problem include behaviorism, consciousness, eliminative materialism, epiphenomenalism, functionalism, identity theory, intentionality, mental causation, neutral monism, and physicalism.
Does Physicalism Entail Panpsychism? Galen Strawson ... - jstor jstor.org 1 fact
referenceThe collection of papers titled 'Consciousness and its Place in Nature: Does Physicalism Entail Panpsychism?' was edited by Anthony Freeman and contains seventeen papers.
(PDF) Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness - Academia.edu academia.edu 1 fact
claimPanpsychism asserts that all matter possesses consciousness at varying levels, offering a potential resolution to the mind-body problem that traditional physicalism struggles to explain.
Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 ... plato.stanford.edu 1 fact
claimGeneral metaphysical theories of consciousness address the mind-body problem by asking about the ontological status of consciousness relative to the physical world, with responses generally paralleling standard dualism and physicalism.
Quantum Approaches to Consciousness plato.stanford.edu 1 fact
perspectiveHans Flohr's approach to consciousness is physicalistic and reductionistic, but it is entirely independent of any specific quantum ideas.
Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Consciousness and the Intermediate ... frontiersin.org 1 fact
referenceRiccardo Manzotti authored the book 'Consciousness and Object. A Mind-Object Identity Physicalist Theory', published by John Benjamins Publishing in 2017.
the explanatory power behind the non-physicalist paradigm - Frontiers frontiersin.org 1 fact
claimPhysicalism is a paradigm where consciousness is considered reducible to physical properties, whereas non-physicalism is a paradigm where consciousness is considered fundamental and irreducible to physical properties.
(PDF) Physicalism vs. Dualism: Can Consciousness Be Fully ... researchgate.net 1 fact
referenceThe paper titled 'Physicalism vs. Dualism: Can Consciousness Be Fully Explained by Physical Science' examines the metaphysical and epistemological problem of consciousness by analyzing the frameworks of physicalism and dualism.
Consciousness, Physicalism, and Panpsychism - R Discovery discovery.researcher.life 1 fact
referenceThe research article titled 'Consciousness, Physicalism, and Panpsychism' (published December 30, 2020) introduces William James's philosophy of mind, specifically examining his views on panpsychism, neutral monism, and the combination problem.