Russellian Monism to the Rescue?

Abstract

This chapter elaborates two standard versions of a view of consciousness known as Russellian Monism. The key idea of this view is that the fundamental entities in micro-reality have intrinsic natures not specified in microphysics, natures that include a range of properties crucial to consciousness and conscious states. The reductive version holds that the relevant properties are themselves genuinely conscious properties of various sorts. The primitivist version holds that the relevant properties ground macro-level conscious properties without themselves involving consciousness. It is shown that neither version is defensible and that neither helps with the paradox.