IN PHILOSOPHY, PHYSICALISM IS the idea that everything can be explained in physical terms. Whether through atoms, electrons, quarks, fields, or other physical processes, physicalism holds that every phenomenon ultimately depends on the physical world.
In the philosophy of mind, this means that everything about the mind can, in principle, be explained by the physical processes of the brain. We don’t yet know all the details, but physicalism maintains that a complete explanation is possible.
In September 2025, I interviewed neuroscientist and bestselling author of Being You, Anil Seth, about the mystery of consciousness. Seth is a physicalist, and so I asked him this question: “With the current state of consciousness science at the moment, if we were to give everybody in this room here some kind of brain scan, with what degree of certainty could you infer what is going on in people’s minds?”
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