Non-Reductive Physicalism

Non-reductive physicalism holds that all phenomena depend on physical processes, but higher-level descriptions cannot simply be replaced by lower-level ones — they remain real and explanatory.

“Checkmate” is implemented by atoms, silicon, and machine code; it is not a concept from particle physics. The concept exists at a higher organizational level and is real despite full physical implementation.

Relation to emergent physicalism

In this corpus the two terms overlap substantially. Emergent physicalism emphasises patterns that arise from composition (organization, relationships, history). Non-reductive physicalism emphasises autonomy of higher-level explanation — psychology, biology, economics stay legitimate even when physics is complete in principle.

Both reject:

• Eliminativism — discarding familiar higher-level categories as mere fiction.
• Dualism — a separate non-physical substance for mind or meaning.

Open question

A3 — open question: Consciousness remains unresolved under this stance — compatible with several camps (reducible, emergent-but-physical, or requiring new principles). The author does not yet claim a settled answer.

Origin: distilled from author stance; public article at /about/philosophical-stance/.