The first half of this book argues that physicalism cannot account for consciousness, and hence cannot be true. The second half explores and defends Russellian monism, a radical alternative to both physicalism and dualism. The view that emerges combines panpsychism with the view that the universe as a whole is fundamental.

• 1. The reality of consciousness


• Part I: Against physicalism


• 2. What is physicalism?


• 3. The knowledge argument


• 4. The conceivability argument


• 5. Revelation and the transparency argument


• Part II: Russellian monism: An alternative


• 6. The elegant solution


• 7. Panpsychism versus panprotopsychism, and the subject-summing problem


• 8. Top-down combination problems


• 9. A conscious universe


• 10. Analytic phenomenology: A metaphysical manifesto

Philip Goff is Professor of Philosophy at Durham University. His research focuses on consciousness and the ultimate nature of reality. Goff is also the author of Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness (Pantheon 2019), Why? The Purpose of the Universe (OUP 2024), and co-editor of Is Consciousness Everywhere? Essays on Panpsychism (Imprint Academic, 2022). Goff has published many academic articles, as well as writing extensively for newspapers and magazines, including Scientific American, The Guardian, Aeon, and the Times Literary Supplement.