Russellian Monism

Russellian Monism, based on the insights of philosopher Bertrand Russell, is a view that phenomenal consciousness and the physical world are deeply intertwined (Alter & Nagasawa, 2012). It characterizes the fundamental essence of matter as beyond that which can be accessed by empirical science or described by mathematical models. The claim is that the conundrum of consciousness and how it fits into the physical world is so critical that integrating consciousness (or proto-consciousness) into fundamental reality could suggest that the elements integrated are distinct from the ones revealed as a result of integration, thus shadowing if not revealing hidden, deep, intrinsic features of the physical world (Goff et al., 2022).

Core Concepts and Framework

Three core concepts conjoin to generate Russellian monism: (i) structuralism about physics (describing the world in terms of its spatiotemporal/relational structure and dynamics); (ii) realism about quiddities (or inscrutables) (there are quiddities/inscrutables, which underlie but are not limited by the structure and dynamics physics describes); and (iii) quidditism (or “inscrutinism”) about consciousness (at least some quiddities/inscrutables are either phenomenal or protophenomenal properties and are thereby relevant to the essence of consciousness) (Alter & Nagasawa, 2012; Alter & Pereboom, 2019).

Variants and Applications

Daniel Stoljar presents four different accounts of the inscrutables: “(i) Phenomenal monism: The inscrutables are phenomenal in nature. (ii) Protophenomenal monism: The inscrutables are not themselves phenomenal in nature but they are a precursor to phenomenal properties. (iii) Physical monism: The inscrutables are physical in nature, though they are outside the domain of physics. (iv) Neutral monism: The inscrutables are neither phenomenal nor physical but rather have a nature that is neutral between the two” (Kind & Stoljar, 2023).

To Russellian monists, if the intrinsic nature of fundamental matter is itself infused by phenomenal properties that express consciousness, then the model is “Russellian panprotopsychism.” Either way, the claim is that Russellian Monism bests dualism by avoiding problematic physical-nonphysical causation and bests materialism by taking consciousness seriously and grounding it in ultimate reality (Goff et al., 2022).

Philip Goff explains that “Russellian monism comes in both smallest and priority monist forms. For the smallest, fundamental categorical properties are instantiated by micro-level physical entities, perhaps electrons and quarks. For the priority monist, the most fundamental categorical properties are instantiated by the universe as a whole.” Each of the categories can be matrixed by whether its properties are “consciousness evolving” or “not consciousness evolving,” yielding four categories of Russellian monism (Goff, 2019a, 2019b).