The current world view is that everything is made of matter, and everything can be reduced to the elementary particles of matter, the basic constituents and building blocks.

All philosophers are said to fall into one of the two primary categories, which are defined in contrast to each other – idealism and materialism.

The basic proposition of these two categories pertains to the nature of reality, and the primary distinction between them is the way they answer two fundamental questions – what does reality consist of and how does it originate? To idealists, spirit and mind is primary, and created matter secondary. To materialists, matter is primary and mind or spirit secondary, a product of matter acting upon matter.

The only reality seen is our material world is generally regarded as mechanistic in nature. A mechanism is a system of operation where the parts are mathematically connected to other parts, and their mutual operation in collaboration also is mathematically constituted.

A giant robot or any other kind of industrial mechanism is an example. We can precisely predict how the machinery works by the study of its parts and the whole can be a study of the parts. The opposite view is that everything starts with consciousness.

This view does not deny that matter also has causal potency – it does not deny that there is causal power from elementary particles upward, but in addition it insists that there is also downward causation. It shows up in our creativity and acts of free will, or when we make moral decisions.