Idealism and the Mind-Body Problem 1

TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the prospects for the one who comes to think that there is little reason to believe in anything beyond consciousness and that the physical world is wholly constituted by consciousness, thereby endorsing idealism: the move to idealism.

Abstract: This chapter examines the prospects for the one who comes to think that there is little reason to believe in anything beyond consciousness and that the physical world is wholly constituted by consciousness, thereby endorsing idealism: the move to idealism. It also examines the prospects for micro-idealism, macro-idealism, and cosmic idealism, looking also at combined versions along the way. The chapter focuses especially on the merits as a solution to the philosophical mind-body problem. It gives a satisfactory theory of the physical world, consciousness, and the relation between them. The chapter argues that all these views face significant challenges but that micro-idealism and especially cosmic idealism have some promise as approaches to these issues. Macro-idealism holds that the mental states of humans and perhaps other macroscopic systems are fundamental and that all of reality is grounded in these states.