ABSTRACT
Mentalistic realism is the thesis that ultimate reality includes a physical world, but one which is, in its intrinsic nature, purely mental – a world wholly confined by the framework of time, minds and mind-governing laws. What matters is how mentalistic realism stands with respect to that concept of the physical which we have reason to adopt. Granted the coherence of mentalistic realism, are there any reasons for adopting it? There is, it seems to the author, a philosophical reason for preferring mentalistic realism to standard realism. For a mentalistic interpretation is something we add to a physical theory only after all its explanatory work has been accomplished. The fact that a physical description does not reveal the intrinsic nature of the physical world does not ensure that mentalistic realism is a genuine possibility. In assuming the physical reality to be thus constituted, we are, in conformity with the confinement thesis, excluding any ultimate non-sensory realization of sense-qualia.
