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Philosophy written from the bedside.

A two-volume philosophical system built from two axioms and tested against the strongest objections in the literature. Integrative Realism is the result.

Two Axioms of Reality

Integrative Realism is a metaphysical framework developed by Michael L. Adix II, MD. It posits that reality has a single nature with two inseparable faces: a structural face described by physics and an intrinsic face that is what consciousness is made of. Complex phenomena arise from simpler constituents through integration.

Axiom I

Reality has two faces: a structural face described by physics and an intrinsic face, what consciousness is made of.

Axiom II

Complexity arises from simplicity through integration.

What We Are, Volume I: The Nature of Reality — front cover

What We Are, Vol. I: The Nature of Reality

The foundation. It sets out the two axioms and turns them on the mind itself — consciousness and the hard problem, time, personal identity, free will, machine consciousness, and the foundations of science.

What We Are, Volume II: The Integrated Life — front cover

What We Are, Vol. II: The Integrated Life

The application. It carries the same two axioms into how to live — ethics, beauty, political justice, the dissolution of God, the meaning of a finite life, and death.

Michael L. Adix II, MD

Michael L. Adix II, MD, is a neurointerventional surgeon in private practice in southwestern Michigan, treating brain and spine disorders through catheter-based techniques. What We Are (two volumes, 2026) is his first published work of philosophy.

Integrative Realism

Reality has a single nature with two inseparable faces: a structural face described by physics and an intrinsic face that is what consciousness is made of. Complex phenomena arise from simpler constituents through integration.

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The Integrated Life

Short essays on the biggest questions — consciousness, the self, meaning — worked out from the bedside by a neurointerventional surgeon, in plain language with the reasoning laid bare. About one a month, free.

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