Physicalistic

Term used to describe someone who is shallow when it comes to relationships. This type of person looks at a possible partner's physical attributes and makes a hasty conclusion whether or not he or she is good enough for them. This person cares more about looks rather than other things a person has to offer.

So this guy is a douche to you but you still like him because he's gorgeous? Wow, you are so physicalistic...

Physicalistic by pepe454 February 28, 2011

Physicaliation

The act of threatening, beginning or breaking out a fight or act of physical violence

Despite the fact that she got caught, he was the one committing physicaliation.

Physicaliation by Moant November 17, 2021

Physicalist Bigotry

A specific form of naturalist bigotry that insists only physical entities and properties exist—rejecting not only the supernatural but also abstract objects, mental states as irreducible, or any non‑physical reality. Physicalist bigotry targets dualists, idealists, panpsychists, and anyone who holds that consciousness or meaning might exceed physical description. It uses accusations of “folk psychology,” “mysterianism,” or “woo” to dismiss alternative positions, often while claiming that physicalism is not a philosophical stance but simply “what science shows.” The bigotry lies in refusing to acknowledge the contested nature of physicalism and in pathologizing those who question it.

Example: “He called her a ‘property dualist’ as an insult, claiming only ‘brain facts’ mattered—physicalist bigotry, treating a live philosophical debate as settled and her position as intellectually defective.”

Physicalist Prejudice

The cognitive bias that privileges physicalist explanations without justification, dismissing any appeal to non‑physical entities or properties as automatically inferior or unintelligible. Physicalist prejudice often appears in discussions of consciousness, where people assume that neural correlates are consciousness rather than evidence of correlation. It leads to reflexive rejection of qualia, subjective experience, or any phenomenon that resists third‑person measurement. This prejudice is common in neuroscience popularization, where “it’s just the brain” is treated as a complete explanation.

Example: “He insisted that love was ‘just neurotransmitters’ and that any talk of feeling was unscientific—physicalist prejudice, reducing a rich phenomenon to a caricature of its physical correlates.”

Physicalist Bigotry by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal April 16, 2026

Physicalist Violence

Harmful actions—psychological, institutional, or physical—taken against those who reject physicalism or who hold beliefs that physicalism deems impossible (e.g., life after death, telepathy, non‑physical consciousness). Physicalist violence includes forced psychiatric treatment for spiritual experiences, denial of academic advancement to dualist philosophers, and harassment of parapsychology researchers. It is often justified by claims that non‑physicalist beliefs are dangerous, anti‑science, or indicative of mental illness. The violence is systemic when institutions (e.g., mental health systems, universities) enforce physicalist orthodoxy as a condition of legitimacy.

Example: “The parapsychology lab was shut down after funding was withdrawn, with administrators calling it ‘embarrassing to the university’—physicalist violence, using institutional power to enforce ontological conformity.”

Physicalist Alienation

The experience of being excluded or made to feel illegitimate in physicalist‑dominated spaces because one’s beliefs or research interests involve non‑physical realities. Physicalist alienation is common among philosophers of mind who defend dualism, consciousness researchers who take subjective experience seriously, and anyone who questions the completeness of physicalist explanations. It manifests as social isolation, professional marginalization, and the constant pressure to frame one’s work in physicalist terms to be taken seriously. The result is often self‑censorship or departure from the field.

Example: “She stopped publishing on panpsychism after reviewers consistently called her work ‘unscientific’—physicalist alienation, where the orthodoxy enforces itself through career consequences.”

Physicalist Violence by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal April 16, 2026

Physicalist Supremacism

The belief that physicalism—the view that everything that exists is physical (or supervenes on the physical)—is the supreme metaphysical truth, superior to any form of dualism, idealism, or emergentism. The physicalist supremacist dismisses mental causation, consciousness, and intentionality as either illusions or “nothing but” physical processes, often without engaging with the arguments against reduction. They treat physicalism as the default for any educated person and view non‑physicalists as confused or unscientific.

Example: “He insisted that love was ‘just neurotransmitters’ and that any other view was unscientific—physicalist supremacism, reducing human experience to its physical correlates.”

Physicalist Supremacism by Dumu The Void April 18, 2026

Physicalist Fanaticism

An obsessive, uncritical devotion to physicalism, where the fanatic attacks any suggestion that consciousness, meaning, or value might not be fully reducible to physics. Physicalist fanatics often rely on promissory materialism (the hope that physics will eventually explain everything) and dismiss current failures as temporary. They can become hostile to philosophy of mind, phenomenology, and even some areas of psychology that do not conform to a strict physicalist framework.

Example: “When she raised the hard problem of consciousness, he shouted ‘neuroscience will solve it!’—physicalist fanaticism, substituting faith in future science for present argument.”

Physicalist Fundamentalism

A rigid, literalist adherence to physicalism as an absolute doctrine, treating any non‑physicalist claim as automatically false regardless of evidence or argument. The physicalist fundamentalist often relies on a simplified reading of physics (e.g., “the world is made of particles in fields”) and rejects interpretations of quantum mechanics that challenge physicalism. They treat physicalism as a proven fact, not a metaphysical stance, and excommunicate those who question it.

Example: “He claimed that ‘physics has proven dualism false’—physicalist fundamentalism, ignoring that physics doesn’t address consciousness at all.”

Physicalist Fanaticism by Dumu The Void April 18, 2026

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