First-Principles Assessment: Physicalism and Idealism at First Principles

Abstract: The epistemic gatekeepers of this project have established that physicalism's neutrality is illusory, that its dominance is historically contingent, that methodological restraint is applied asymmetrically, that the generativity standard is miscalibrated, and that the real disagreement concerns where explanation stops — not how mechanisms work. None of them renders a verdict. This essay does. Operating strictly at the level of first principles — not theory maturity, not evidential closure, not institutional success — it asks which contemporary framework currently commits fewer unjustified epistemic inversions. The answer: analytic idealism commits fewer inversions at the foundational level while remaining empirically adequate. The essay specifies the conditions under which the assessment would change and names idealism's genuine vulnerabilities alongside physicalism's structural costs. Part of the Return to Consciousness research program — 22 philosophical essays exploring consciousness-first metaphysics. Full project: https://brunoton.github.io/return-to-consciousness/