All 325+ Competing Consciousness Theories In One Video

Robert Lawrence Kuhn, creator and host of the renowned documentary series "Closer to Truth," has undertaken the monumental task of mapping 325+ scientific theories of consciousness, organising them into ten categories—from materialist accounts to quantum approaches, from Integrated Information Theory to panpsychism and all different forms of idealisms, amongst which Analytic Idealism.

His article, “A Landscape of Consciousness: Toward a Taxonomy of Explanations and Implications,” does not seek to evaluate or adjudicate among these theories, but rather to classify and arrange them. In doing so, Kuhn offers the first comprehensive scientific overview of how humanity conceives of consciousness and its metaphysical underpinnings in 2025.

In this conversation, Hans Busstra talks to Kuhn about the categories of his map and the metaphysical commitments they imply. While Kuhn was careful to remain neutral in his published work, here he speaks more openly—sharing which theories he finds more or less plausible.

Read the full paper here: "A Landscape of Consciousness: Toward a Taxonomy of Explanations and Implications" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...

Landscape Map: https://loc.closertotruth.com/map

Landscape Grid: https://loc.closertotruth.com/conscio...

All Landscape Theories: https://loc.closertotruth.com/all-con...

Interactive Visualization: https://loc.closertotruth.com/interac...

[Laird]

Fascinating. I'd meant to read Robert's article since discovering it almost a year ago, but had lost track of it. This discussion was a great overview with some very interesting insights.

(ETA: I watched this a few days ago, and made a few observations that now escape my recollection, except for this: I'm puzzled that Robert distinguishes cosmopsychism from idealism, because Bernardo Kastrup is pretty clear that it is pretty much the same as his Analytic Idealism.)

Incidentally, and curiously, Robert's preferred theory of consciousness is pretty much the same as mine, at least at this broad level.