Definitions by Abzu Land

Neuromania

A critical term coined by certain philosophers and psychologists (e.g., Raymond Tallis) to designate the contemporary craze or obsession with explaining every aspect of human experience—love, art, morality, religion, consciousness—exclusively through brain activity. Neuromania reduces the human being to their brain, ignoring the body, environment, culture, and personal history. It is a form of neuroscientific imperialism that promises to “unveil the mysteries of the soul” with fMRI, but often produces trivial or circular explanations. Critics point out that neuromania is an academic and media fad that lends a scientific aura to commonplaces. It mistakes correlation for causation and confuses necessary neural conditions with sufficient psychological explanations.

NeuromaniaExample: “A columnist wrote: ‘Passion doesn’t exist – it’s just dopaminergic neurons in the nucleus accumbens.’ A psychologist replied: ‘That’s neuromania: you explained the brain chemistry, but said nothing about the meaning of love.’”

Neuromania by Abzu Land May 27, 2026

Neomentalism

An adaptation of mentalism (the philosophical position that mind is the fundamental reality from which matter derives) to current scientific knowledge. Inspired by Berkeley, Kant, and German idealism, neomentalism reinterprets quantum physics as evidence that consciousness collapses the wave function, or that the universe is essentially mental (panpsychism). It uses arguments from neuroscience about the impossibility of explaining subjective experience (qualia) in material terms. Its strong version, sometimes called “scientific idealism” (Bernardo Kastrup), claims that the physical world is an image of a cosmic mind.

Neomentalism Example: “A neomentalist said: ‘The hard problem of consciousness has no materialist solution – therefore mind is fundamental.’ The neuroscientist responded: ‘Argument from ignorance: what I don’t understand, therefore spirit. That’s gap‑filling with metaphysics, not science.’ The neomentalist counter‑responds: ‘And your materialism is not a solution; it’s a promissory note. We have direct access to consciousness; matter is an inference. If one of the two must be the primitive, the evidence points to mind.’”

Neomentalism by Abzu Land May 27, 2026

Neometaphysicalism

A rarer term, which can be seen as a systematic and dogmatic version of neometaphysics. It adapts “metaphysicalism” (the belief that ultimate reality is metaphysical, not merely physical) to current scientific knowledge. It proposes that physical laws emerge from more fundamental metaphysical principles – such as the principle of sufficient reason, the identity of indiscernibles, or transcendental logical structures. Neometaphysicalism attempts to unify science, logic, and ontology into a coherent system, often using type theory, topos theory, or quantified modal logic.

Neometaphysicalism Example: “A neometaphysicalist argued that the cosmological constant is determined by modal symmetry principles, not by physical dynamics. The cosmologist replied: ‘Interesting, but without observable predictions, that’s philosophy – not science. You’re just renaming God as “modal necessity”.’ The neometaphysicalist counter‑replies: ‘Your own reliance on symmetries and mathematical beauty is no less metaphysical. You just haven’t admitted it. I make the assumptions explicit; you hide them.’”

Neometaphysicalism by Abzu Land May 27, 2026

Neometaphysics

An adaptation of metaphysics (the study of first causes, being, spirit) to current scientific knowledge. Unlike traditional speculative metaphysics, neometaphysics incorporates results from modern physics (relativity, quantum mechanics, cosmology), evolutionary biology, and neuroscience to address questions about reality, time, causality, consciousness, and free will. Neometaphysics does not oppose science; it seeks its foundations and limits. It is practiced by philosophers of science as a “naturalised metaphysics”.

Neometaphysics Example: “A neometaphysician asks: ‘Is the quantum wave function real or just a calculation?’ The pragmatic physicist retorts: ‘That’s metaphysics, not physics.’ The neometaphysician counter‑replies: ‘Your “shut up and calculate” is itself a metaphysical stance. You rely on a view of reality you refuse to defend. That’s not pragmatism – it’s evasion.’”

Neometaphysics by Abzu Land May 27, 2026

Neopsychism

An adaptation of “psychism” (psychic faculties such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition) to current scientific knowledge. Neopsychism attempts to study parapsychological phenomena using controlled, statistical, and neuroscientific methods, moving away from sensationalism. It differs from classical parapsychology by demanding replicability and mechanistic theories (e.g., quantum information fields, non‑local correlation effects). Most mainstream science dismisses the area as pseudoscience due to lack of robust, replicable results. Nevertheless, neopsychism persists in institutions such as the Society for Psychical Research and “noetic sciences” laboratories.

Neopsychism Example: “A neopsychist published a meta‑analysis of Ganzfeld telepathy experiments with modest statistical significance. The critic retorted: ‘Publication bias and tiny effect sizes – that’s not scientific adaptation, it’s the persistence of desire dressed as data.’ The neopsychist counter‑retorts: ‘Same criticism could be levelled at early drug trials. A small effect is still an effect. Your demand for perfection is a convenient way to ignore uncomfortable anomalies.’”

Neopsychism by Abzu Land May 27, 2026

Neospiritualism

An adaptation of spiritualism (belief in non‑physical realities – spirit, soul – that transcend matter) to current scientific knowledge. Unlike traditional spiritualism, it posits no gods or dogmas, but rather a “spiritual dimension of nature” accessible through extended scientific methods. Neospiritualism engages with cutting‑edge physics (string theory, multiverse, quantum consciousness) and evolutionary biology to suggest that mind or consciousness may have a causal role in the universe not fully reducible to the brain. It is less organised than neospiritism and more diffuse, appearing in scientific self‑help books and “science and spirituality” documentaries.

Neospiritualism Example: “A neospiritualist physicist said: ‘Consciousness might be a fundamental field, like gravity.’ The materialist colleague replied: ‘That’s not science – it’s metaphysics with pretty pictures. Show me an equation, not an analogy.’ The neospiritualist counter‑responds: ‘Gravity was once just a metaphor too. No equation for consciousness yet? Fine – but closing the question is not science, it’s scientism.’”

Neospiritualism by Abzu Land May 27, 2026

Neospiritism

An adaptation of Kardecist spiritism (communication with spirits, reincarnation, mediumship) to current scientific knowledge. It seeks to ground mediumistic phenomena in terms of speculative quantum physics, transpersonal psychology, neuroscience, and experimental parapsychology. Neospiritism discards classical supernatural elements and proposes that “spirits” would be patterns of quantum information, consciousness fields, or mnemonic residues in the environment. It uses concepts such as non‑local consciousness (drawn from certain interpretations of quantum mechanics) and statistical correlations in mediumship experiments. The mainstream scientific community rejects most of these claims as pseudoscience, but the movement has grown in secular spirituality and consciousness studies circles.

Neospiritism Example: “A neospiritist argued that Chico Xavier’s mediumship accessed information stored in brain morphic fields. The skeptic replied: ‘Where’s the experimental replication? That’s spiritism in a lab coat – you’re just renaming wishful thinking.’ The neospiritist counter‑replies: ‘The same dismissal was once aimed at hypnosis and non‑local entanglement. Replication requires looking; your refusal is dogma, not science.’”

Neospiritism by Abzu Land May 27, 2026