Difference between revisions of "Panpsychism" - New World Encyclopedia

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Panpsychism, in philosophy, is either the view that all parts of matter involve mind, or the more holistic view that the whole universe is an organism that possesses a mind. It is thus a stronger and more ambitious view than hylozoism, which holds only that all things are alive. This is not to say that panpsychism believes that all matter is alive or even conscious but rather that the constituent parts of matter are composed of some form of mind and are sentient.

Panpsychism claims that everything is sentient and that there are either many separate minds, or one single mind that unites everything that is. The concept of the unconscious, made popular by the psychoanalysts, made possible a variant of panpsychism that denies consciousness from some entities while still asserting the ubiquity of mind.

Emergence and Panpsychism

Panpsychism, at least in its stronger forms, is not an intuitive position. We naturally think of much of the universe (rocks, light-waves, etc.) as different from us in a very fundamental way - namely, that we have mind and are conscious, and those other things aren't. Such a division is at the root of many of our ethical views as well. We think that there is something much worse about stabbing an animal with a hot poker than there is about stabbing a rock or a machine (even a complex machine). The reason for that simply seems to be that animals, by virtue of having minds, have a capacity for pain that rocks and circuit boards simply lack.

Given this, it is natural to wonder what motivation panpsychism could possibly have that could weigh against such a well-entrenched intuitive position. The chief motivation becomes more clear when we reflect on the question of how it is that consciousness or minds could appear in the world.

Consider the growth and development of an animal like a cow. We believe that a full-grown cow is a conscious being, but that the individual reproductive cells of its parent-cows and the food they injest are not conscious. Yet sometime after the time when the reproductive cells establish physical contact, a conscious being seems to appear where none had been there before (note that this issue is distinct from the issue of life, since we normally think that there are plenty of non-conscious living beings). On this way of describing things, we can say that consciousness emerges, where this means that a certain property comes into being where it had not existed before.

The emergence of some properties in the world is unmysterious. For instance, as a result of a certain political process, some entity might suddenly acquire the property of being Prime Minister, where it had not been Prime Minister before. The reason this seems unmysterious is that anyone who understands what the property of being Prime Minister is will be able to see how it could have arisen from some combination of other properties (e.g. the property of being a candidate + the property of being voted for by A + the property of being voted for by B, etc.).

Spinoza

Leibniz

References and Recommended Readings

Clark, D. (2004) Panpsychism: Past and Recent, Albany, SUNY Press.
Leibniz, G. (1714/1989). Monadology, in G. W. Leibniz: Philosophical Essays, R. Ariew and D. Garber (eds. and trans.), Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
Skrbina, D. (2005). Panpsychism in the West, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Spinoza, B. (1677/1985). Ethics, in The Collected Works of Spinoza, E. Curley (ed. and trans.), Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Sprigge, T.L.S. (1998). "Panpsychism." In E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge.

External links

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Panpsychism
Bibliography on Panpsychism compiled by David Chalmers
panpsychism.net

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@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 Panpsychism claims that everything is sentient and that there are either many separate minds, or one single mind that unites everything that is. The concept of the [[Unconscious mind|unconscious]], made popular by the [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalysts]], made possible a variant of panpsychism that denies [[consciousness]] from some entities while still asserting the ubiquity of mind.
-== Relation to metaphysical positions ==
+== Emergence and Panpsychism ==
-Panpsychism can be understood as a form of [[idealism]] - the [[metaphysics|metaphysical]] view that says the fundamental constituents of reality are mental (a view that holds that [[matter]] is dependent on [[minds]], or that only mental qualities exist- a type of substance [[monism]]).
+Panpsychism, at least in its stronger forms, is not an intuitive position.  We naturally think of much of the universe (rocks, light-waves, etc.) as different from us in a very fundamental way - namely, that we have mind and are conscious, and those other things aren't.  Such a division is at the root of many of our ethical views as well.  We think that there is something much worse about stabbing an animal with a hot poker than there is about stabbing a rock or a machine (even a complex machine).  The reason for that simply seems to be that animals, by virtue of having minds, have a ''capacity for pain'' that rocks and circuit boards simply lack.
-[[Eliminative Materialism]], the view that there is no such thing as mind, but only matter- is incompatible with panpsychism. [[Materialism]] generally, the view that ultimately there is only matter, is compatible with panpsychism just in case the property of mindedness is attributed to matter.
+Given this, it is natural to wonder what motivation panpsychism could possibly have that could weigh against such a well-entrenched intuitive position.  The chief motivation becomes more clear when we reflect on the question of how it is that consciousness or minds could appear in the world.
-[[Hylopathism]] argues for just this attribution. Few writers would advocate a hylopathic materialism, although the idea is not new; it has been formulated as "whatever underlies consciousness in a material sense, i.e., whatever it is about the brain that gives rise to consciousness, must necessarily be present to some degree in any other material thing". This idea relies upon a [[noumenon|"thing in itself"]] in order to explain all phenomena (see [[hyle]]). Similar ideas have been formulated by philosopher [[David Chalmers]], in the form of the [[philosophical zombie]] thought experiment, of which a major criticism is that it can be demonstrated that the only properties shared by all [[qualia]] are that they are not precisely descriptible and thus are of [[indeterminate]] meaning within any philosophy which relies upon precise definition. This has been somewhat of a blow to panpsychism in general, since some of the same problems seem to be present in panpsychism in that it tends to presuppose a definition for mentality without describing it in any real detail. (What separates mental and non-mental phenomena?)
+Consider the growth and development of an animal like a cow.  We believe that a full-grown cow is a conscious being, but that the individual reproductive cells of its parent-cows and the food they injest are not conscious.  Yet sometime after the time when the reproductive cells establish physical contact, a conscious being seems to appear where none had been there before (note that this issue is distinct from the issue of ''life'', since we normally think that there are plenty of non-conscious living beings).  On this way of describing things, we can say that consciousness '''emerges''', where this means that a certain property comes into being where it had not existed before.
-However, there are also varieties of [[monism]] that don't presuppose (like materialism and idealism do) that mind and matter are fundamentally separable. An example is [[neutral monism]] first introduced by [[Baruch Spinoza|Spinoza]] and later propounded by [[William James]]. Panpsychism can be combined with this view.
+The emergence of some properties in the world is unmysterious.  For instance, as a result of a certain political process, some entity might suddenly acquire the property of being Prime Minister, where it had not been Prime Minister before.  The reason this seems unmysterious is that anyone who understands what the property of being Prime Minister is will be able to see how it could have arisen from some combination of other properties (e.g. the property of being a candidate + the property of being voted for by A + the property of being voted for by B, etc.).
-== In the history of philosophy ==
+== Spinoza ==
-The view of the world as a [[macrocosm]] in relation to man (which is a [[microcosm]], respectively) was a staple theme in Greek philosophy. In that view it was natural to think about the world in [[anthropomorphism|anthropomorphic]] terms. The view passed into the medieval period via [[Neoplatonism]], and became shared by [[Gottfried Leibniz|Leibniz]], [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling|Schelling]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauer]] and many others.
+== Leibniz ==
-Idea of "animated atom" in [[Russian cosmism]] in the early 20th century.
-[[Josiah Royce]] (1855-1916), the leading American absolute idealist,  held to the panpsychist view, though he didn't necessarily attribute mental properties to the smallest constituents of mentalistic "systems".
-The panpsychist doctrine has recently been making some kind of a comeback in the American [[philosophy of mind]] — for example, [[David Chalmers]], [[Christian de Quincey]] and [[Leo Stubenberg]] have each recently defended it. In the philosophy of mind, panpsychism is one possible solution to the so-called [[hard problem of consciousness]]. The doctrine has also been applied in the field of environmental philosophy through the work of Australian philosopher, [[Freya Mathews]].
-== In the psychoanalytic tradition ==
-[[Carl Jung]], who is maybe best known for his idea of [[collective unconscious]], wrote that "psyche and matter are contained in one and the same world, and moreover are in continuous contact with one another", and that it was probable that "psyche and matter are two different aspects of one and the same thing". (orig. source unknown, cited in [[Danah Zohar]] & Ian Marshall, SQ: Connecting with our Spiritual Intelligence, Bloomsbury, 2000, p. 81). This could be interpreted as panpsychism, apparently of the [[neutral monism]] variety.
-== Other manifestations ==
-Panpsychism and [[emergentism]] can be seen as alternative ways to bridge the more extreme positions of crude [[reductionism]] and crude [[holism]]. Panpsychism differs from emergentism in that according to panpsychism, even the smallest physical particles have mental characteristics. Emergentism claims that though the particles be mindless, some [[systems]] formed by them, and by nothing but them, ''do'' possess mental attributes. The human brain is a case in point.
-[[Gaia theory]], which views the [[biosphere]] as a [[self-regulation|self-regulating]] [[system]], that maintains [[homeostasis]] in relation to many vital chemical and physical variables, is sometimes interpreted as panpsychism, because some think that any goal-directed behavior qualifies as mental. However, the goal-directed behavior of the biosphere, as explained by the [[Gaia theory]], is an emergent function of ''organised, living'' matter, not a quality of ''any'' matter. Thus [[Gaia theory]] is more properly associated with [[emergentism]] than panpsychism.
-The label "naive" (vs. "philosophical") panpsychism is sometimes used to mean, not a doctrine defended by any philosopher, but the attitude of primal people and children to think of even inanimate objects as sentient and/or [[intention|intentional]]. This is the same as [[animism]].
-Panpsychism, as a view that the universe has "universal consciousness", is shared by some forms of religious thought: [[theosophy]], [[pantheism]], [[panentheism]], and [[cosmotheism]].
-'''Panexperientialism''' or '''panprotopsychism''' are related concepts.
-[[Alfred North Whitehead]] incorporated a scientific worldview into the development of his philosophical system similar to [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]]’s [[Theory of Relativity]].  His ideas were a significant development of the idea of panpsychism, also known as panexperientialism, due to Whitehead’s emphasis on experience. [[Process philosophy]] suggests that fundamental elements of the universe are occasions of experience, which can be collected into groups creating something as complex as a human being. This experience is not consciousness; there is no mind-body duality under this system as mind is seen as a very developed kind of experience. Whitehead was not a subjective idealist and, while his philosophy resembles the concept of [[monad]]s first proposed by Leibniz, Whitehead’s occasions of experience are interrelated with every other occasion of experience that has ever occurred. He embraced panentheism with God encompassing all occasions of experience, transcending them. Whitehead believed that the occasions of experience are the smallest element in the universe—even smaller than subatomic particles.
 == References and Recommended Readings ==