Ontological Models
These frameworks primarily define what exists, asserting the foundational substance, structure, and nature of reality.
Eliminative Materialism: Asserts that subjective mental states do not actually exist.
Materialism and Physicalism: Posits that physical matter acts as the sole foundational substance.
Cartesian Dualism: Claims that reality consists of two distinct substances, mind and matter.
Object-Oriented Ontology: Focuses on the independent existence and relations of objects independent of human perception.
Digital Ontology: Suggests that information or computation functions as the foundational building block of reality.
Process Philosophy: Views existence as a series of unfolding events rather than static substances.
Panpsychism: Argues that consciousness remains a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of the physical world.
Neutral Monism: Asserts that one underlying substance exists, which is neither purely mental nor purely physical.
Substance Monism: Claims that only one infinite substance exists.
Dual-Aspect Monism: Suggests that the mental and the physical operate as two attributes of a single underlying reality.
Subjective Idealism: Posits that only minds and mental contents exist.
Absolute Idealism: Views all of reality as a single, all-encompassing, self-aware spirit or mind.
Cosmopsychism: Asserts that the universe operates as a single conscious entity.
Neoplatonism: Describes reality as a series of emanations from a single, ineffable source.
Panentheism: Claims that the divine interpenetrates every part of the universe while also extending beyond time and space.
Yogacara Buddhism: Proposes a consciousness-only model of reality where all phenomena are projections of awareness.
Mystical Christianity: Centers on the direct, unmediated experience of unity with the divine source.
Daoism: Identifies the Dao as the fundamental, flowing source of all existence.
Advaita Vedanta: Asserts that pure, undifferentiated consciousness remains the only reality, while multiplicity is an illusion.
Analytic Idealism: Employs modern analytical philosophy to argue that reality is fundamentally rooted in consciousness.
Kashmir Shaivism: Defines all of existence as the spontaneous, localized expression of a singular, self-aware absolute.
Epistemological Models
These frameworks primarily address the nature of knowing, focusing on the limits of perception and how a specific point of view interprets the world.
Representational Realism: Argues that human beings do not perceive the external world directly, but rather through internal mental representations.
Kantian Transcendental Idealism: Asserts that human knowledge remains limited to phenomena structured by the mind, leaving the reality of things-in-themselves ultimately inaccessible.