Head to head
Descartes’s Substance Dualism vs Hoffman’s Conscious Realism
Descartes’s Substance Dualism and Hoffman’s Conscious Realism: The Case Against Reality, compared field by field from their entries in the Atlas.
At a glance
- Descartes’s Substance Dualism belongs to the Dualism family in Kuhn's Landscape of Consciousness, Hoffman’s Conscious Realism to Idealism.
- Both treat consciousness as fundamental.
- They give the same kind of answer on life after death and meaning and purpose.
- On AI consciousness, Descartes’s Substance Dualism says “No” and Hoffman’s Conscious Realism says “Likely”.
- On mind uploading, Descartes’s Substance Dualism says “No” and Hoffman’s Conscious Realism says “Likely”.
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The claim
In brief
Descartes’s Substance DualismRené Descartes holds that consciousness, which he calls thought (cogitatio), is the essence of an immaterial thinking substance (res cogitans) wholly distinct from extended, mechanical body (res extensa). Every conscious state, from reasoning and willing to pain, color, and emotion, is a mode of the thinking thing and is immediately present to it. Sensations and passions, though, arise only in the union of mind and body, where brain processes stand in regular relations to experiences they do not resemble.
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
Descartes’s Substance DualismConsciousness is thought, defined as everything that happens within us insofar as we are immediately conscious of it, and it is the principal attribute of the mind.
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
Can AI be conscious?Differ
Descartes’s Substance DualismNoSince thought belongs only to immaterial substance and matter is pure extension, a machine, however complex, would be mechanism without a mind.
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.
Does consciousness survive death?Both agree
Descartes’s Substance DualismYesDescartes presented the real distinction of soul and body as what makes the soul’s survival intelligible, and the Meditations announce that aim in their subtitle.
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.
Descartes’s Substance DualismNoCopying the body’s mechanism would not copy the immaterial thinking substance.
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.
Does it give life meaning?Both agree
Descartes’s Substance DualismCosmic/UltimateDescartes’s system rests on a non-deceiving God who guarantees knowledge and created even the eternal truths.
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
Descartes’s Substance DualismSubstance dualism (Cartesian)
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismIdealism
Mind and body
Descartes’s Substance DualismMind and body are really distinct finite substances with exclusive essences, thought and extension, and could by divine power exist apart. They are joined in the human being, where bodily motions give rise to sensations and the mind moves the body, though Descartes never explained that interaction satisfactorily.
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
Descartes’s Substance DualismPrimitive
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismPrimitive
Qualia
Descartes’s Substance DualismSensory qualities are not properties of matter, which has only size, shape, motion, and arrangement. Experienced redness or pain is a mental mode arising in the embodied union and cannot be captured by extension.
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
Descartes’s Substance DualismMechanism on the bodily side and non-reduction on the mental side. Light mechanically affects eyes, nerves, and brain, and the mind then experiences color, distance, and shape in regular correspondence with those motions.
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
Descartes’s Substance DualismThe mind is unextended. Sensations and passions are felt as belonging to one’s own body, and Descartes located mind-brain communication in the pineal gland.
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
Descartes’s Substance DualismPassions are caused and strengthened by movements of the animal spirits and dispose the soul toward volition and action. The will can in turn move the body.
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
Descartes’s Substance DualismConceptually 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
Descartes’s Substance DualismNot stated
Hoffman’s Conscious RealismNot stated
Criticisms
Descartes’s Substance DualismPrincess Elisabeth of Bohemia asked how an immaterial soul could move a material body, and the interaction problem remains unresolved. Arnauld and later critics charged circularity, since the proofs of God that guarantee clear and distinct perception themselves rely on clear and distinct perception. The standard reading denies consciousness to animals, which most now find implausible.
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
Descartes’s Substance Dualism
- Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes (trans. J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch) (1984)
- Principles of Philosophy, René Descartes (trans. J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch) (1985)
- The Passions of the Soul, René Descartes (trans. J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch) (1985)
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)
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