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.
Monism
Pauli’s One World, Two Aspects: Psychophysical Complementarity
Consciousness as the Psychic Aspect of One World
Wolfgang Pauli held that mind and matter are complementary aspects of one underlying reality, the unus mundus (‘one world’), which is itself neither mental nor physical and cannot be observed directly. Conscious experience is the subjective pole of that split, and archetypes act as ordering principles that shape both psyche and physical nature.
Wolfgang Pauli, Carl Jung
What consciousness is
Consciousness is one of two complementary aspects of a psychophysically neutral, archetypally ordered reality. Phenomenal experience and physical process are equally real and equally derivative.
Mind and body
Mind and matter arise through an epistemic split of an undivided whole. Pauli treats them as complementary in Bohr's sense: mutually exclusive, jointly necessary descriptions, neither reducible to the other.
Mechanism
Complementarity extended from quantum physics to psychology, combined with archetypes as psychophysically neutral ordering operators that Pauli described as statistical laws with primary probabilities.
Core claims
- Pauli holds that mind and matter are two complementary aspects of one psychophysically neutral reality, the unus mundus.
- Becoming conscious of an unconscious content alters it, which Pauli compares to measurement disturbing a quantum system.
- Archetypes order both psyche and matter, and Pauli cited Kepler's use of archetypal images to explain the fit between mathematics and nature.
- Synchronicities are rare, meaningful, acausal coincidences that Pauli treated as special cases of more general acausal dispositions.
Criticisms
Because the neutral domain is inaccessible in principle, the view resists direct test and risks explanatory emptiness. The archetypes it relies on are formally underspecified, and the synchronicity component, on which Pauli placed considerable weight, is empirically contested.
Implications
- Meaning and purpose: Cosmic/Ultimate
- Pauli speculated about a law of nature grounded in meaning and saw archetypes ordering both mind and matter, which gives meaning a place in nature beyond human concerns.
Related theories
Sources
- The Influence of Archetypal Ideas on the Scientific Theories of Kepler, Wolfgang Pauli (1952)
- The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche, Carl Jung & Wolfgang Pauli (1955)
- Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge, Niels Bohr (1958)
- Writings on Physics and Philosophy, Wolfgang Pauli (C. P. Enz & K. von Meyenn, Eds.) (1994)
- Atom and Archetype: The Pauli/Jung Letters, 1932–1958, C. A. Meier (Ed.) (2001)
- Pauli's Ideas on Mind and Matter in the Context of Contemporary Science, H. Atmanspacher & H. Primas (2006)
- A New Idea of Reality: Pauli on the Unity of Mind and Matter, W. Seager (2011)
- Dual-Aspect Monism à la Pauli and Jung, H. Atmanspacher (2012)
- The Pauli–Jung Conjecture and Its Impact Today, H. Atmanspacher & C. A. Fuchs (Eds.) (2014)
- The Pauli–Jung Conjecture and Its Relatives: A Formally Augmented Outline, H. Atmanspacher (2020)
Explore all theories on the Consciousness Atlas
