Several of these are problems that 20th-century philosophers like Ludwig Wittgenstein labeled “philosophical puzzles” and Bertrand Russell called “pseudo-problems.” Analytic language philosophers thought many of these problems could be “dis-solved,” revealing them to be conceptual errors caused by the misuse of language.Analytical philosopher Gilbert Ryle called them “category mistakes” that could be avoided by more careful “conceptual analysis.” For example, his critical analysis of the “concept of mind” concluded that a “metaphysical” – an immaterial – mind simply could not exist.

Using the new methodology of information philosophy, these classic problems are now back under consideration as genuinely important, analyzable and potentially soluble in terms of information.

Although it is neither matter nor energy, immaterial information can interact causally with the more familiar contents of the physical world. Information philosophy explains how “an idea can move a mountain.”