Physicalist Dogmatism

The uncritical, unquestioning acceptance of physicalism as simply “how reality works,” without awareness that physicalism is a philosophical position with significant challenges. The physicalist dogmatist treats mental states as unproblematically physical, dismisses the explanatory gap as irrelevant, and refuses to engage with arguments from anti‑reductionist philosophers. Their dogmatism prevents them from seeing the limits of their own worldview.

Example: “She said ‘of course the mind is the brain’ and changed the subject when asked about qualia—physicalist dogmatism, treating a contested claim as settled.”

Physicalist Orthodoxy

The dominant, institutionalized set of physicalist beliefs and practices within mainstream neuroscience, philosophy of mind, and cognitive science, enforced through funding priorities, journal standards, and professional advancement. Physicalist orthodoxy determines what research programs are considered serious, what hypotheses are testable, and who gets to be called a “mind scientist.” It often marginalizes non‑physicalist approaches (e.g., property dualism, panpsychism) as unscientific, even when they are empirically equivalent. It shapes the very boundaries of acceptable inquiry.

Example: “The journal rejected her paper on integrated information theory as ‘not physicalist enough’—physicalist orthodoxy, using metaphysical criteria to judge empirical work.”

Physicalist Dogmatism by Dumu The Void April 18, 2026