The 222 theories of consciousness
Index of the full catalogue. Each entry includes explanation, strengths, main criticisms and connections with other theories. You can also browse by discipline, epoch or region, or see the interactive graph on the home page.
222 theories catalogued, connected, and grouped into emergent clusters.
Browse by facet
Disciplines
Anthropology·3Biology·10Cognitive sciences·13Computing / AI·17Indigenous tradition·9Neuroscience·40Philosophy·48Physics·13Psychology·27Sociology·13Spirituality·27Theology·2
- 40 Hz gamma oscillations
- Absent / inverted qualia
- Absolute idealism
- Access vs phenomenal consciousness
- ACT-R architecture
- Active inference and artificial agents
- Actor-network theory
- Advaita Vedānta
- Altered states of consciousness
- Amerindian perspectivism
- Analytic idealism
- Artificial consciousness and superintelligence
- Attachment theory and intersubjective consciousness
- Attention as schematic model in AI
- Attention schema theory
- Autobiographical memory and self
- Autopoiesis
- Ayahuasca and Amazonian cosmovision
- Baars-Dehaene integrated stage theory
- Bantu philosophy of vital force
- Bhakti and devotional mysticism
- Bicameral mind hypothesis
- Binding by synchrony
- Biological naturalism
- Biosemiotics
- Blavatsky's theosophy
- Bohmian mechanics
- Brain as active predictor theory
- Buddhist anātman
- Camaquen and tonality in Andean cosmovision
- Cartesian dualism
- Cathars and the Perfect
- Central somatotopic map theory
- Centre of narrative gravity
- Chinese room
- Christian existentialism
- Christian mysticism
- Circumpolar shamanic traditions
- CLARION architecture
- Claustrum as the seat of consciousness
- Cogito and phenomenology
- Cognition as quantum computation (Penrose applied to AI)
- Collective intelligence and social consciousness
- Collective memory (Halbwachs)
- Complex systems and emergence
- Computational cognitivism
- Computational theory of the self (computational Dennett)
- Computational universe
- Confucianism and ethical consciousness
- Conscious Turing Machine
- Consciousness and Bengio's System 2 architectures
- Consciousness as interface (Hoffman)
- Consciousness in non-human animals
- Consciousness in octopuses and invertebrates
- Contemporary panpsychism
- Content externalism
- Copenhagen interpretation (Wigner)
- Cosmopsychism
- Cultural studies and mediatized consciousness
- Damasio's self theory
- Debate on consciousness in LLMs
- Default mode network and consciousness
- Dendritic integration and apical amplification
- Dissociation and multiple consciousness
- Dramaturgical model of the self
- Dreamtime and Songlines
- Dual-aspect monism
- Durkheim's collective consciousness
- Dynamic core theory
- Dzogchen and the non-dual nature of mind
- Ecological extended mind
- Electromagnetic field theory of consciousness
- Eliminativism
- Embodied AI and cognitive robotics
- Embodied cognition
- Embodied consciousness and the affective turn
- Embodied simulation
- Empiricism and introspectionism
- Empiricism of the mind as tabula rasa
- Enactivism
- Entropic brain
- Ethnomethodology and everyday practices
- Evolutionary theory of consciousness
- Existence and being-in-the-world
- Existentialism and the for-itself
- Extended Mind
- Foucault and consciousness as effect of power
- Four yogas and paths of realization
- Frankfurt School and critique of instrumental reason
- Free energy principle
- Freudian psychoanalysis
- Functionalism
- Gaia hypothesis
- Gender, performativity and consciousness
- Gestalt psychology
- Gibson's ecological psychology
- Global neuronal workspace (GNW)
- Global workspace theory
- Gnosticism and the divine spark
- Gramsci's hegemony and consciousness
- Graph-dynamic theory of consciousness
- Gurdjieff's Fourth Way
- Hard problem of consciousness
- Hermeticism and the Divine Mind
- Higher-order theory (HOT)
- Hindu Tantra and kuṇḍalinī
- Historical materialism and consciousness
- Holographic theory of the universe
- Holonomic brain theory
- Humanistic psychology
- Hypnosis and consciousness
- Implicate order
- Information cosmology (it from bit)
- Inner alchemy and transmutation
- Integrated information theory
- Jungian analytical psychology
- Kabbalah and the sefirot
- Knowledge argument (Mary's Room)
- Lacanian structural unconscious
- LIDA and the conscious cognitive cycle
- Local-global processing theory
- Logical behaviorism
- Logotherapy
- Machine consciousness (Aleksander, Holland)
- Madhyamaka and emptiness
- Many-worlds interpretation
- Maori and whakapapa
- Massive modularity of mind
- Mechanistic materialism
- Mexica teyolía, tonalli and ihíyotl
- Mind-brain identity theory
- Monadology
- Morphogenetic fields / morphic resonance
- Multiple drafts theory
- Narrative identity (Ricoeur)
- Near-death experiences and non-local consciousness
- Neoplatonism and emanation of the One
- Neural correlates of consciousness
- Neural Darwinism
- Neurophenomenology
- Neurorepresentationalism
- Neutral monism
- New Age and holistic consciousness
- Orch-OR (orchestrated objective reduction)
- Ordinary language philosophy
- Pachamama and indigenous deep ecology
- Participatory universe
- Patañjali's classical yoga
- Pauli-Jung synchronicity
- Perception as active inference
- Phenomenology of embodiment
- Philosophical hermeneutics
- Philosophical zombie argument
- Piaget's genetic epistemology
- Polyvagal theory
- Positive psychology
- Pragmatism and consciousness
- Pragmatism and stream of consciousness
- Pre-Socratic philosophy and nous
- Predictive processing
- Process philosophy
- Process theology
- Psi and parapsychology
- Psychosynthesis
- QBism
- Quantum theory of consciousness (Stapp)
- Radical behaviorism
- REBUS (psychedelics)
- Recurrent processing theory
- Ritual trance and possession
- Rosicrucians
- Russellian monism
- Sapir-Whorf and linguistic mediation
- Science of psychedelics
- Scientific mindfulness
- Scientific research on meditation
- Self-model theory (PSM)
- Self-representationalism
- Sensory filter theory (Bergson-Huxley)
- Simulation hypothesis
- Situated cognition
- SOAR architecture
- Social brain hypothesis
- Social constructivism of the self
- Social mind and theory of mind
- Social neuroscience and mirror neurons
- Society of mind
- Society of the spectacle
- SOMA: self-organising metarepresentational account (Cleeremans)
- Somatic marker hypothesis
- Split-brain
- Steiner's anthroposophy
- Strange loop / strange I
- Subcortical and affective brainstem consciousness
- Subjective idealism
- Sufi mysticism
- Symbol grounding problem
- System 1 / System 2
- Sāṃkhya and puruṣa-prakṛti dualism
- Taoism and wu wei
- Teilhard's Omega Point and noosphere
- Temporo-spatial theory of consciousness (TTC)
- Thalamocortical loop theory
- The Master and his Emissary argument
- The Tao of Physics
- Transcendental idealism
- Transpersonal psychology
- Triune brain theory
- Turing test and the behavioural criterion
- Turing-machine functionalism
- Ubuntu and the person-in-community
- Uexküll's Umwelt
- Unified field theory of consciousness
- Unlimited associative learning (UAL)
- Vipassanā and mindful attention
- Virtual mind hypothesis (Sloman)
- Wilber's integral model
- Will and representation
- Yogācāra Buddhism
- Yoruba and consciousness as Orí
- Zen and satori
- Zone of proximal development (Vygotsky)