Strategies for explaining consciousness fan out across an impressive terrain of ideas. At the extremes are positions that either dismiss consciousness as an illusion (eliminativism) or declare that consciousness is the only quality of the world that is real (idealism). In between, we encounter a spectrum of proposals. Some operate within the confines of traditional scientific thought, others slip between the cracks of current scientific understanding, and others still augment the qualities we have long held to define reality at its most fundamental level.
