The Consciousness Atlas is an interactive web app that visualizes more
than 450 theories of consciousness. It is based on Robert Lawrence
Kuhn's 2024 paper,
"A Landscape of Consciousness". The Atlas maps theories that address phenomenal consciousness - the
subjective feel of experience, such as the redness of red.
What the Atlas is
The Atlas is a visual reference built on Kuhn's taxonomy. It presents
the full set of theories at once so you can explore the field visually
and open any theory to read its entry, like an encyclopedia with
structured entries. Each theory entry shows a concise identity line,
conceptual ground, suggested mechanism, empirical notes, implications,
and sources.
Why this exists
Consciousness is studied across disciplines - neuroscience,
philosophy, and sometimes spiritual or anomalous-state research.
Kuhn's paper collects and organizes hundreds of theories along a
spectrum from most physical to least physical. The Atlas puts that
organization into a visual form so readers, students, and researchers
can quickly see how different positions relate and where each theory
sits on the spectrum.
How it works
Theories are grouped into ten main categories, arranged by their
stance on the physical-to-nonphysical spectrum. Examples of categories
include Materialism, Non-Reductive Physicalism, Functionalism,
Quantum-based theories, Panpsychism, Monism, Dualism, Idealism,
Anomalous States, and Challenge Theories. The app shows the whole map
at once. Click any theory to read its structured entry, which includes
references to canonical sources and named thinkers.
Who it is for
- Students learning philosophy of mind and cognitive science
-
Researchers and lecturers looking for an at-a-glance comparative
resource
-
Journalists and writers who need a quick reference to the range of
positions
-
Curious readers who want a clear view of what people mean when they
talk about consciousness
What the Atlas does not do
The Atlas does not endorse or rank theories. It is a visualization and
reference based on Kuhn's taxonomy - collect and present, not judge.
It does not attempt to settle the hard problem of consciousness. It is
a tool for exploration and comparison.
A note from Kuhn
Kuhn explicitly states the project's purpose: "collect and categorize,
not assess and adjudicate." The Consciousness Atlas follows that
approach. The data and structure are derived from Kuhn's paper;
feedback and suggested corrections are welcome, but the app is a
visualization layer on top of Kuhn's work.
Kuhn was not involved in the design or content of the Consciousness
Atlas, other than his original paper, 'A Landscape of Consciousness,'
which is the sole source.
FAQ
What is phenomenal consciousness?
Phenomenal consciousness refers to subjective experience - the
qualitative feel of being aware, like the taste of coffee or the
redness of red.
How many theories does the Atlas include?
The Atlas visualizes over 220 individual theories, grouped into ten
broad categories.
Does the Atlas show which theory is true?
No. The Atlas presents theories neutrally. It is a map, not an
argument for any single position.
Is the Atlas academic?
The Atlas is based on an academic source - Robert Kuhn's 2024 paper,
"A Landscape of Consciousness" - and links to canonical sources
where available.
Summary
The Consciousness Atlas is a straightforward visualization tool: it
presents Kuhn's taxonomy as a single, explorable map and lets users
open individual theory entries to read structured, referenced
summaries. It is designed to make this complex field easier to survey
and to serve as a practical reference.
Idealism
Berkeley’s Immaterialist Idealism
To Be Is to Be Perceived or to Perceive
George Berkeley holds that nothing exists but minds (spirits) and the ideas they perceive: to be is to be perceived or to perceive. Sensible objects are stable, lawful collections of ideas, not mind-independent matter behind them. God, an infinite spirit, causes and sustains these ideas, which keeps the sensory world vivid, ordered, public, and in existence when no finite mind perceives it.
George Berkeley
What consciousness is
Phenomenal consciousness is the immediate apprehension of ideas by active finite spirits, and it is the mode in which the sensible world itself exists, not an inner representation of something beyond it.
Mind and body
Bodies, including one's own, are collections of ideas in minds. There is no material substance, so the mind-body problem becomes a relation between active spirits and the passive ideas they perceive.
Mechanism
Esse est percipi aut percipere, combined with divine causation: ideas cannot cause one another and finite spirits do not will most of them, so God produces the sensory order.
Core claims
- An idea can resemble only another idea, so the representationalist view that ideas copy unperceived matter is unintelligible.
- Primary qualities such as size, shape, and motion vary with the perceiver just as colors and tastes do, so the primary-secondary distinction collapses.
- Visual distance and magnitude are learned through correlations between visual and tactile ideas, as argued in the New Theory of Vision.
- The involuntary, lawful order of sensory ideas requires an infinite spirit as their cause.
Criticisms
Divine causation carries much of the explanatory burden. The ontology of active spirits is less accessible than the ontology of ideas, since all immediate objects of knowledge are ideas. Identifying ordinary objects with collections of ideas is hard to reconcile with contemporary scientific realism.
Implications
- AI consciousness: Unlikely
- Only spirits perceive and act, and a machine is a collection of ideas, so a machine as such could not be conscious on this view.
- Survival beyond death: Likely
- A spirit is not an idea and so is not part of the body that dies, and Berkeley's system is built to support religious belief, though survival is not argued here.
- Meaning and purpose: Cosmic/Ultimate
- Berkeley directs his project to practice and morality, starting from the nearness and omnipresence of God, whose will orders the whole sensory world.
- Virtual immortality: No
- A digital copy would be only a further collection of ideas, never an active perceiving spirit.
Related theories
Sources
- An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision, George Berkeley (1709)
- A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, George Berkeley (1710)
- Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, George Berkeley (1713)
- Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher, George Berkeley (1732)
- Berkeley: An Interpretation, Kenneth P. Winkler (1989)
- Berkeley’s World: An Examination of the Three Dialogues, Tom Stoneham (2002)
Explore all theories on the Consciousness Atlas
