In consciousness studies, dualism refers to the idea that consciousness is the result of something other than the purely physical world associated with current science. It’s important to note that dualism does not necessarily imply something spooky, supernatural or religious – just something “other”.

There are several forms of dualism, including:

• Predicate Dualism. This is the idea that mental states cannot be reduced to physical predicates. I think of this as ‘descriptive dualism’.
• Property Dualism. This idea means that consciousness is a result of currently unknown properties of the physical universe. I think of this as ‘undiscovered dualism’.
• Substance Dualism. Here, dualism refers to a fundamentally different sort of object than those in the physical universe. I think of this as ‘true dualism’.

My position is that I am – currently – a reluctant true dualist. There are many issues with true dualism – not least being the effect on science of breaking the causal closure of the physical universe. However I do not believe that any of the physicalist theories can account for phenomenal consciousness and free will.