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.
Materialism › Philosophical
Hobbes’s Mechanical Phantasms and the Material Mind
Phenomenal Appearance as Motion in the Body
Thomas Hobbes holds that whatever exists is body and whatever changes is motion, so sensation, imagination, memory, thought, and emotion are all motions in a living organism. Pressure from an external body travels inward to the brain and heart and provokes an outward counter-motion, or ‘endeavour’, and the felt appearance of color, sound, or pain (the ‘phantasm’) just is that motion. There is no immaterial soul and, for Hobbes, no explanatory gap.
Thomas Hobbes
What consciousness is
A phantasm, the felt content of sensation, is identical with a reactive motion in the perceiver’s body. Appearance is real, wholly corporeal, and nothing over and above that motion.
Mind and body
Mind-body identity: mental states are motions in a body, so questions of union or interaction never arise. Hobbes calls ‘incorporeal substance’ a contradiction, two names with inconsistent meanings that together signify nothing.
Mechanism
Pressure and endeavour: an external body presses a sense organ, the pressure travels inward to the brain and heart, and the heart’s outward counter-pressure produces the phantasm, which persists for a while after the object is gone.
Core claims
- Sense is nothing but original fancy caused by the pressure of external things on the sense organs.
- Mirrors and echoes separate an appearance from its source, showing that sensible qualities are in the perceiver rather than the object.
- Inferring an incorporeal thinker from ‘I am thinking’ is like inferring an incorporeal walker from ‘I am walking’ (Hobbes’s objection to Descartes).
- Awareness requires difference: sensing the same thing always and not sensing at all come to the same.
Criticisms
If sense is reaction to pressure and all bodies react, all bodies should sense; Hobbes’s restriction to bodies with organs and memory looks contrived, and Sorell concludes some panpsychism is hard to rule out (Cavendish and Henry More pressed the same point). Leijenhorst reads phantasms as modes of the perceiver rather than identities with motion, a reading Duncan questions.
Implications
- Survival beyond death: No
- Since every mental state is a motion in a body and incorporeal substance is a contradiction, nothing of the mind continues once the body’s motions stop.
Related theories
Sources
- Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes (1651)
- De Corpore, Thomas Hobbes (1655)
- Meditations on First Philosophy, with Objections and Replies, René Descartes (1641)
- The Wax and the Mechanical Mind: Reexamining Hobbes's Objections to Descartes's Meditations, M. P. Adams (2014)
- Debating Materialism: Cavendish, Hobbes, and More, S. Duncan (2012)
- Materialism from Hobbes to Locke, S. Duncan (2022)
- Hobbes and the Matter of Self-Consciousness, S. Frost (2005)
- The Mechanisation of Aristotelianism, C. Leijenhorst (2002)
- Hobbes and Descartes on the Relation between Language and Consciousness, G. M. Ross (1988)
- Hobbes, T. Sorell (1986)
Explore all theories on the Consciousness Atlas
