Head to head
Eliminative Materialism vs Hoffman’s Conscious Realism
Churchland’s Eliminative Materialism and Hoffman’s Conscious Realism: The Case Against Reality, compared field by field from their entries in the Atlas.
At a glance
- Eliminative Materialism belongs to the Materialism family in Kuhn's Landscape of Consciousness, Hoffman’s Conscious Realism to Idealism.
- On life after death, Eliminative Materialism says “No” and Hoffman’s Conscious Realism says “Likely”.
- On meaning and purpose, Eliminative Materialism says “Humanistic only” and Hoffman’s Conscious Realism says “Cosmic/Ultimate”.
Add more theories to this comparisonCompare other theories
The claim
In brief
Eliminative MaterialismPaul and Patricia Churchland hold that common-sense psychology, our everyday talk of beliefs, desires, and experiences, is a radically false theory that a completed neuroscience will displace rather than smoothly reduce. Consciousness as we ordinarily conceive it is a brain-generated picture shaped by evolution, and our self-understanding, introspection included, will be rebuilt in neuroscientific terms.
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismThis theory asserts that evolution selects for survival and reproductive fitness, not for veridical perception of reality; consequently, spacetime and physical objects function merely as an 'interface' or illusion guiding adaptive behavior. Ultimate reality is fundamentally composed of interacting conscious agents and their experiences, which are primary to, and generative of, the physical world.
What consciousness is
Eliminative MaterialismWhat we call consciousness, as folk psychology describes it, does not exist in that form. The real phenomena are neural processes, which only a mature neuroscience will describe correctly.
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismConsciousness is identified as the fundamental reality, structured as a vast social network of interacting 'conscious agents' and their experiences.
Big questions
Eliminative MaterialismNo position
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismLikelyAs consciousness is fundamental (Idealism), it is not restricted to biological matter. If an artificial system achieves the organizational complexity characteristic of a 'conscious agent', it could potentially tap into the fundamental consciousness field, regardless of its physical substrate.
Eliminative MaterialismNoSince the mind is the brain, nothing mental survives the brain’s death.
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismLikelySince consciousness is fundamental and generates the physical interface, the individual conscious agent is likely to persist beyond the disintegration of the biological body/interface.
Eliminative MaterialismNo position
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismLikelyIf the brain is merely an interface for fundamental consciousness, virtual immortality becomes a matter of reproducing the necessary structures or functions (the 'icon' or interface) needed to manifest the individual conscious agent in a non-biological medium.
Eliminative MaterialismHumanistic onlyPatricia Churchland urges us to see ourselves as organisms in nature, understood by scientific methods, with no cosmic purpose.
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismCosmic/UltimateIdealism fundamentally supports ultimate meaning and purpose. Reality is composed of interacting conscious agents whose existence and actions (influencing other agents) imply inherent value and purpose.
Nature of mind
Ontology
Eliminative MaterialismPhysicalism (eliminative)
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismIdealism
Mind and body
Eliminative MaterialismThe mind is the brain. Patricia Churchland calls her program a ‘unified theory of the mind-brain’ and treats claims that mind goes beyond brain as the residue of folk myths.
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismConsciousness is fundamental and creates spacetime and objects, reversing the conventional arrow of causation. Brain activity correlates with mental states because consciousness creates the brain activity/physical world interface.
Fundamental or emergent
Eliminative MaterialismNeither
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismPrimitive
Qualia
Eliminative MaterialismQualia as folk psychology and philosophers conceive them are expected to give way to neuroscientific description; the view treats consciousness as a kind of illusion generated by the brain.
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismQualia are implied to be the fundamental experiences inherent to the conscious agents, which are then translated into simplistic icons (like colors or objects) within the spacetime interface.
How it works
Mechanism
Eliminative MaterialismTheory displacement. Folk psychology will be replaced the way outdated scientific theories were, its principles and ontology discarded rather than mapped onto brain states.
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismThe principle of evolution favoring fitness over veridical perception leads to the construction of a simplified, illusionary 'interface' (spacetime and physical objects) that guides adaptive behavior.
Where it is
Eliminative MaterialismIn the brain.
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismConsciousness is fundamental in the universe. It is not a product of space and time or anything inside space and time; spacetime is merely a format for conscious experiences (the interface).
What it does
Eliminative MaterialismBehavior is caused by neural processes; neuroscience is expected to explain it better than folk psychology does.
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismConsciousness is causally fundamental. The functional role of the perceived physical world is solely to enhance fitness and reproductive success by guiding behavior.
Evidence and criticism
Testability
Eliminative MaterialismConceptually testable
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismHighly speculative/ontological. Conceptually testable via the mathematical formulation of consciousness agents. Empirical evidence relies on common perceptual illusions (reinterpreted to support Idealism).
Tests so far
Eliminative MaterialismThe view stakes its claim on the future course of neuroscience; whether folk categories survive in mature brain science is the long-run test.
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismNot stated
Criticisms
Eliminative MaterialismCritics say denying subjective experience defies both intuition and direct evidence; Galen Strawson calls the denial of experience ‘the strangest thing that has ever happened in the whole history of human thought’. There is also tension between Patricia Churchland’s talk of reduction to neurobiology and the eliminativist claim that folk psychology will be displaced rather than reduced.
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismCriticized for interpreting empirical evidence (like user illusions) diametrically opposite to materialist accounts (such as Dennett's and Graziano's eliminative materialism). It requires reversing the conventional causal relationship between brain and mind.
Sources
Key sources
Eliminative Materialism
- Neurophilosophy, Patricia Churchland (1986)
- Churchland’s Eliminative Materialism (Landscape of Consciousness), Patricia Churchland
Hoffman’s Conscious Realism
- The Case against Reality: How Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes, D. Hoffman (2019)
- Conscious realism and the mind-body problem, D. Hoffman (2008)
- Fact, fiction, and fitness, C. Prakash, C. Fields, D.D. Hoffman, R. Prentner, M. Singh (2020)