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Relation to the world· Mind and consciousness

Reductive physicalism

Axis: The enigma of consciousnessCan a science of the brain fully explain lived experience?

Consciousness is nothing but the brain's activity: mental states are physical states that science will one day identify. There is no residual mystery, only complexity still poorly understood.

Who holds this position

Movements 1

Epicureanismexplicit

The soul is corporeal: an assembly of very fine atoms that dissolves at death like the rest. Thought and sensation are material processes, with nothing immortal or immaterial.

Epicurus, Letter to Herodotus; Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, III

Foundations and implications
↑ What grounds itReductive physicalism — The enigma of consciousness=ReductivephysicalismThe enigma of consciousness
Descriptive
Materialism — Nature of reality=MaterialismNature of reality
Descriptive
A leaf — an application that grounds nothing further here.

What grounds it

Nature of reality

If everything that exists is material, consciousness can only be a property of the brain: mental states are physical states that science will eventually identify. Materialism thus leads to reductive physicalism, which denies mind any reality distinct from neural activity.

What it implies

A leaf — an application that grounds nothing further here.