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reality
Facts (50)
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Panpsychism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Jul 18, 2017 7 facts
claimWilliam James's panpsychism originated from his "neutral monism," which posits that the fundamental nature of reality is neither mental nor physical, but a third form that can be regarded as either mental or physical from different viewpoints.
quoteWilliam James wrote in a 1909 notebook: "the constitution of reality which I am making for is of the psychic type."
perspectiveThomas Nagel is open to the possibility that there exists an unknown neutral vocabulary that could adequately describe both experiential and non-experiential features of reality.
claimArthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) theorized that 'will' is the inner nature of all things, based on his introspection of will as a fundamental quality, while being influenced by Immanuel Kant's view that reality as it is in itself is inaccessible.
claimGustav Fechner and Josiah Royce held that the ontological foundation of reality is a "world-soul" or "world-mind" of which everything is a part.
claimAnaxagoras (500–425 BCE) denied that novel elements emerge from basic features of reality and instead argued that 'everything is in everything'.
referencePierfrancesco Basile and Leeman B. McHenry edited 'Consciousness, Reality and Value: Essays in Honour of T.L.S. Sprigge', published by Ontos Verlag in 2007.
Panpsychism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2015 Edition) plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 6 facts
quoteWilliam James wrote in a 1909 notebook: “the constitution of reality which I am making for is of the psychic type”.
accountDuring the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the growth of idealist philosophy caused panpsychism to become the default philosophy, characterized by the positioning of mentality as the primary component of reality.
claimWilliam James's panpsychism originated from his 'neutral monism,' which posits that reality is neither inherently mental nor physical but possesses a basic character that can be viewed as either.
referenceTimothy Sprigge authored 'My Philosophy and Some Defence of It', published in the 2007 collection 'Consciousness, Reality and Value: Essays in Honour of T. L. S. Sprigge', edited by P. Basile and L. McHenry.
referenceThomas Nagel explored the objective and subjective nature of reality in his 1986 book 'The View from Nowhere'.
perspectivePanpsychism is often viewed as an implausible doctrine against the backdrop of modern scientific knowledge of the physical world and the widespread desire to explain reality in physical terms.
The Hard Problem of Consciousness | Springer Nature Link link.springer.com 6 facts
perspectiveDavid Chalmers argues that while interpretations of experience rely on metaphysical presuppositions, the notion of reality is not an illusion.
perspectiveDavid Chalmers maintains a realist stance regarding reality, asserting that minds are part of reality, but that reality exists independently of human minds.
claimAccording to Bertrand Russell's neutral monism, the intrinsic essence of reality is neither physical nor phenomenal.
claimThe humanities are trapped by the Cartesian subject, which leads them to repeatedly discover the illusiveness of reality while failing to bridge the gap between subject and object, mind and body, and individual and society.
quote“There are truths about reality, and we can try to find them”
claimDavid Chalmers interprets the 'reality' within the 'Matrix' scenario as being as real as the reality outside of it, with the two realities operating under different metaphysical premises regarding the ontological nature of the phenomenal and the physical.
Panpsychism - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 5 facts
referenceMax Tegmark discusses the ultimate nature of reality in his 2014 book, 'Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality'.
formulaDonald Hoffman's 'fitness beats truth theorem' serves as a mathematical proof that perceptions of reality bear little resemblance to the true nature of reality.
referenceArthur Schopenhauer discusses the nature of reality in his work 'Der Welt als Wille und Vorstellung' (The World as Will and Representation), specifically in Book II, section 17.
referenceDonald Hoffman argues that evolution has hidden the truth of reality from human perception in his 2019 book, 'The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes'.
perspectiveDonald Hoffman asserts that consciousness is an indisputable fact, even if reality itself is an illusion.
Is Reality an Illusion? New Theory Challenges Modern Physics scitechdaily.com Mar 1, 2026 3 facts
quoteMaria Strømme stated regarding her theory: "Yes, you could say so. But above all, it is a theory in which consciousness comes first, and structures such as time, space and matter arise afterwards. It is a very ambitious attempt to describe how our experienced reality functions."
claimMaria Strømme utilizes quantum mechanical concepts to articulate her theory regarding the nature of reality, intentionally avoiding religious terminology.
claimMaria Strømme, a Professor of Materials Science at Uppsala University, proposes a theoretical model in AIP Advances where consciousness is the fundamental element of reality, from which time, space, and matter arise.
The function(s) of consciousness: an evolutionary perspective frontiersin.org Nov 25, 2024 3 facts
claimIn an evolutionary context, meaning is derived from what a species has collectively learned about reality, which is validated through survival and reproductive success and encoded in species memory.
claimEvolutionary processes access reality indirectly through the effects that reality has on survival and reproductive success.
claimMemory functions as a real-time repository of information about reality, tasked with selecting behavioral responses from available alternatives provided by evolution based on past experience.
Panpsychism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 Edition) plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 3 facts
perspectiveEinar Duenger Bohn (2018) defends 'pannormism,' the view that normativity exists all the way down to the fundamental level of reality.
claimA philosophical critique of modern physics suggests that its austere, mathematico-nomic vocabulary may be unable to capture the complete, intrinsic nature of concrete reality, such as the intrinsic nature of an electron.
claimThe thesis that conscious experience is essentially temporal implies that if time does not exist at the fundamental level of reality, then consciousness cannot exist at the fundamental level of reality.
Quantum Approaches to Consciousness plato.stanford.edu Nov 30, 2004 3 facts
claimHeisenberg’s notion of the actual relates to a measured event, while his notion of the potential relates to a tendency existing before measurement, expressing a reality independent of measurement.
referenceBernard d’Espagnat discussed concepts of reality in the book 'On Quanta, Mind, and Matter'.
referenceGeorg Franck (2008) explored the possibility of specifying panpsychism through the concepts of presence and reality.
Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness cambridge.org Dec 20, 2023 3 facts
claimDual-aspect monism asserts that physics leaves a gap in the description of reality because it only describes the structure of reality, which consists of relations between things such as spatiotemporal, causal, mathematical, and logical relations.
claimPhysicist John Wheeler (1983) alluded to the idea that reality comes into being only when perceived, aligning with George Berkeley's 'esse est percipi' slogan, based on the interpretation that quantum measurement involves conscious observation.
claimEven under interpretations where consciousness causes the collapse of the wave function, reality exists prior to the interaction with consciousness in a superposed state, meaning the interaction changes the state rather than creating reality.
Quantum Mechanics And Consciousness: The Physics Of Mind quantumzeitgeist.com Apr 17, 2025 2 facts
perspectiveMainstream physicists generally reject the view that consciousness influences reality at a quantum level, as experiments suggesting such a link are not widely validated.
claimIn the double-slit experiment, particles exhibit different behaviors when observed versus unobserved, which leads some to suggest that consciousness influences reality.
David Chalmers - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 2 facts
Quantum Approaches to Consciousness plato.stanford.edu Nov 30, 2004 1 fact
claimIn a 2006 interview, Henry Stapp specified that in his approach, which draws on Alfred North Whitehead's process thinking, 'actual occasions' are the fundamental elements of reality rather than matter or mind.
Critique of Panpsychism: Philosophical Coherence and Scientific ... thequran.love May 7, 2025 1 fact
claimPanpsychism avoids the bifurcation of reality found in substance dualism by positing that there is only one kind of physical stuff with two inseparable aspects: the inner experiential aspect and the outer physical aspect.
A new theoretical model proposes consciousness as the ... - Facebook facebook.com Nov 25, 2025 1 fact
claimA new theoretical model proposes that consciousness is the fundamental basis of reality, existing prior to time, space, and matter.
Unknown source 1 fact
claimThe theory described in the article posits that consciousness constitutes the fundamental element of reality, and that individual consciousnesses are parts of this fundamental element.
Consciousness as the foundation: New theory addresses nature of ... phys.org Nov 25, 2025 1 fact
claimMaria Strømme observes that major religious texts, such as the Bible, the Koran, and the Vedas, often describe an interconnected consciousness and use metaphorical language to express insights about the nature of reality.
Panpsychism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 1 fact
claimIdealism is a philosophical position that holds that mind is the sole ontological foundation of reality, with the physical world being constructed out of mental phenomena.
Quantum Theory of Consciousness - Scirp.org. scirp.org 1 fact
referenceDavid Chalmers authored 'Constructing the World', published by Oxford University Press in 2012, which addresses philosophical issues regarding the structure of reality.