Landscape Grid: Consciousness Categories & Theories

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Diverse explanations or theories of consciousness are arrayed on a roughly physicalist-to-nonphysicalist landscape of essences and mechanisms. Categories: Materialism (philosophical, neurobiological, electromagnetic field, computational and informational, homeostatic and affective, embodied and enactive, relational, representational, language, phylogenetic evolution); Non-Reductive Physicalism; Quantum & Dimensions Theories; Information; Panpsychisms; Monisms; Dualisms; Idealisms; Anomalous and Altered States; Challenge. There are many subcategories (currently 12), especially for Materialism Theories. Each explanation is self-described by its adherents, critique is minimal and only for clarification, and there is no attempt to adjudicate among theories. The implications of consciousness explanations or theories are assessed with respect to eight questions: meaning/purpose, value, personal identity, free will, conscious things, AI consciousness, virtual immortality, life after death.

Explore: Browse All Theories List / Landscape Map / Interactive Visualizations