Why Materialism Fails: Dr. Bernardo Kastrup on Consciousness, Reality, and Idealism

Dr. Bernardo Kastrup is a philosopher and computer scientist who has worked with several of the world’s leading scientific laboratories. He has written a number of books on the philosophy of mind and consciousness, but in recent years he published a deliberately provocative book titled Why Materialism Is Baloney.

What Is Materialism According to Kastrup

Materialism, or strict naturalism, claims that everything in the world is nothing but nature, nothing but matter. According to Kastrup, this is not simply an incorrect opinion but a childish way of understanding reality.

Kastrup does not argue that matter exists and that spirit exists in addition to it. That view is known as dualism. Rather, he argues that only spirit or consciousness exists. What appears to us as matter is merely a particular manifestation of consciousness. This approach is called idealism, and it is strikingly close to the Jewish belief expressed in the saying, “He who said that oil should burn can say that vinegar should burn.”

Why Idealism Is Often Misunderstood

Idealism is less popular in modern discourse because it is often mistakenly dismissed as a conspiracy theory or as the claim that life is an illusion, like the Matrix. In truth however, the opposite is the case.

Our only encounter with reality is through consciousness, through spirit, and abstract experience. All our knowledge of matter and the external world is a kind of secondary processing that we perform.

Consciousness as the Only Gateway to Reality

Kastrup presents simple and very clear arguments. Our only gateway to reality is consciousness, yet consciousness is clearly not material. Matter cannot think about itself, and the fact that matter becomes highly complex, such as a space shuttle, does not suddenly give it the ability to be self aware.

All our knowledge of the world comes through consciousness, which is non material. Therefore, there is no proof for the existence of matter as an independent reality. The only reality we truly know is the experience of matter within non material consciousness. To be a materialist is to multiply realities unnecessarily, while the default position is that non material consciousness was created in such a way that it experiences a world.

Perception Does Not Reveal Matter Itself

Even according to materialism, we never encounter matter itself. What we seem to see with our eyes is an image created inside the brain. Reflected light produces a mental picture, and in principle, different people or different creatures could see the same object in entirely different ways.

Seeing is an act of creation, not direct access to the thing itself. Any judgment about sensory perception is made by the brain, and especially according to materialism, there is no reason to assume that this judgment corresponds to ultimate reality.

Individual Consciousness and Universal Consciousness

According to Kastrup, individual consciousness is part of a universal consciousness. Our confinement within a body limits awareness to the boundaries of the body, but as a person listens more deeply to the soul and to inner truth, they may connect to universal consciousness.

This idea parallels the concept of the Active Intellect discussed by Maimonides and earlier Jewish thinkers. Wisdom is not something we create. We encounter it and grasp it, but we do not manufacture it. Just as mathematical laws are abstract realities that exist before humans discover them, allowing different people to discover them independently, so too all abstract principles and all wisdom exist prior to human comprehension. They are independent realities, creations of the Holy One, blessed be He.

Consciousness After Death

When a person dies, Kastrup argues, consciousness does not disappear or contract. On the contrary, it expands. Death is the removal of limitations and barriers. This view, of course, aligns with Jewish belief.

Idealism Is Not Solipsism

The difference between idealism and illusion based theories such as solipsism is crucial. Idealism does not claim that all reality is merely my imagination or that other people do not exist.

Rather, the consciousness of every individual exists and is independent. What we call matter exists within consciousness, and what we call the laws of nature are laws governing how what we experience as reality is generated.

Does the Question of Matter Even Matter

Ultimately, when one thinks about it carefully, the question of whether matter exists at all becomes meaningless. We have no concept of what matter is beyond the experience it produces.

When I see a table, what actually occurs is that an image of a table is formed in my brain. I have no understanding of what it means to say “there is a table” beyond that mental image.

For this reason, Kastrup concludes that if materialists speak about skepticism, their worldview is the first to collapse under skeptical scrutiny.