# Bernardo Kastrup

Bernardo Kastrup (born 21 October 1974) is a Brazilian-born Dutch philosopher and computer scientist best known for his work in the field of consciousness studies, particularly his development of analytic idealism, a form of metaphysical idealism grounded in the analytic philosophical tradition. He has written several books and papers arguing against physicalism and proposing that consciousness is a fundamental aspect of reality. Kastrup is the executive director of Essentia Foundation, which curates and publishes "the latest analytic and scientific indications that metaphysical materialism is fundamentally flawed".

## Early life and education

Bernardo Kastrup was born in Niterói, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and later moved to Switzerland, but currently lives in the Netherlands.
He graduated in electronic engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1997. He received his Ph.D. in computer engineering with the thesis Automatic synthesis of reconfigurable instruction set accelerators from the Eindhoven University of Technology, where his research focused on reconfigurable computing and artificial intelligence.
He earned his second Ph.D., in philosophy, from Radboud University Nijmegen, with his research focused on philosophy of mind and ontology. His doctoral dissertation was Analytic Idealism: A consciousness-only ontology, which articulated the metaphysical position he would continue to develop and for which he would become most widely known.

## Career

Kastrup began his career in academia and technological research by contributing to areas such as artificial intelligence and information security. As a scientist, he has worked for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the Philips Research Laboratories, and as a technology strategist for ASML Holding. He co-founded the parallel processor company Silicon Hive, which was acquired by Intel in 2011.
Kastrup later shifted his research to philosophy, with a focus on metaphysics and the debate over the nature of consciousness.
Since the publication of his dissertation, Kastrup has continued to advance and popularize his theory. He has written for numerous publications, including Scientific American, where his articles critique physicalist interpretations of consciousness and offer an idealist alternative. Kastrup is also an author, with several books that explore consciousness and reality from the perspective of analytic idealism. These include Why Materialism is Baloney, The Idea of the World, and Decoding Jung’s Metaphysics.

## Philosophical work

Kastrup is best known for the development of analytic idealism, a metaphysical and ontological framework that posits phenomenal consciousness is the fundamental "reduction base" of reality as a whole, and that individual minds are dissociations of the monist universal mind.
Kastrup has engaged in a number of public debates with prominent figures in both science and philosophy, including neuroscientist Christof Koch, philosopher Graham Oppy, lecturer/writer Susan Blackmore, cognitive scientist Donald D. Hoffman, philosopher Philip Goff, and physicist and science educator Sabine Hossenfelder. These debates have sometimes been adversarial and incited controversy.

## Selected published works

Some of Kastrup's works include:
* —— (2011). Rationalist Spirituality: An Exploration of the Meaning of Life and Existence Informed by Logic and Science. Winchester, UK: IFF Books. ISBN 9781846947353.
* —— (2014). Why Materialism Is Baloney: How True Skeptics Know There is No Death and Fathom Answers to Life, the Universe, and Everything. Collective Ink. ISBN 9781782793618.
* —— (2016). More Than Allegory: On Religious Myth, Truth, and Belief. Winchester, UK: IFF Books. ISBN 9781785352874.
* —— (2019). The Idea of the World: A Multi-Disciplinary Argument for the Mental Nature of Reality. Winchester, UK: IFF Books. ISBN 9781785357398.
* —— (2021). Decoding Jung's Metaphysics: The Archetypal Semantics of an Experiential Universe. Winchester, UK: IFF Books. ISBN 9781789045659.

## Books

* Meaning in Absurdity (2011)
* Dreamed Up Reality (2011)
* Rationalist Sprituality (2011)
* Why Materialism Is Baloney (2014)
* Brief Peeks Beyond (2015)
* More Than Allegory (2016)
* The Idea of the World (2019)
* Decoding Schopenhauer's Metaphysics (2020)
* Science Ideated (2021)
* Decoding Jung's Metaphysics (2021)
* Analytic Idealism in a Nutshell (2024)