EN
“Neutral monism”, a view of the relation between the mental and the physical held among others by Bertrand Russell, was by many of its proponents seen as a more plausible alternative to both idealism and dualism. According to a common objection, however, neutral monism implies that all reality is ultimately of a mental – rather than neutral – nature, and so the position really amounts to a form of panpsychism, idealism or phenomenalism. I argue that – at least when it comes to an influential formulation of neutral monism expressed in Russell’s 1927 book The Analysis of Matter – we have reasons to resist this mentalist suspicion since it presupposes a concept of consciousness which Russell would presumably reject.