Panpsychism
Panpsychism is the
belief that
mind, or
consciousness, is
omnipresent throughout the
universe and is a fundamental aspect the universe. Examples of
panpsychic beliefs are that atoms have "atomic consciousness", rocks have "rock consciousness", trees have "tree consciousness", planets have "planet consciousness", the universe has "universal consciousness", and so on.
Panpsychism is sometimes called
panexperientialism or
panprotopsychism in contemporary
Philosophy of mind.
Panpsychism and Theism
Panpsychism is sometimes described as nothing more than the universe having "universal consciousness". This view is shared by some forms of theosophy, pantheism, panentheism, cosmotheism, and universism. However this form of panpsychism does not necessarily imply any of these views.
Panpsychism and the Mind-body problem
Panpsychism does not necessarily imply idealism - the metaphysical view that mind is the fundamental constituent of reality (a view that reduces matter to mind - a type of monism). Panpsychism is compatible with either idealism or dualism - the view that mind and matter are mutually irreducible. In contrast, panpsychism seems incompatible with materialism (or physicalism), another kind of monism that reduces mind to matter.
Panpsychism is often viewed as a solution to the hard problem of consciousness.
Thinkers on panpsychism
\nSupporters of panpsychism
\n*Anaxagoras\n*Thales\n*Plotinus\n*George Berkeley\n*Henri Bergson\n*David Bohm\n*Giordano Bruno\n*Joseph Campbell\n*Fritjof Capra\n*David Chalmers\n*William Kingdon Clifford\n*Freeman Dyson\n*Gustav Fechner\n*David Ray Griffin\n*Ernst Haeckel\n*Charles Hartshorne\n*Gerardus Heymans\n*William James\n*Carl Jung\n*A. Kozlov\n*Gottfried Leibniz\n*Rudolf Hermann Lotze\n*Thomas Nagel\n*Friedrich Paulsen\n*Charles Peirce\n*Morton Prince\n*Josiah Royce\n*Friedrich Schelling\n*Ferdinand C. S. Schiller \n*Arthur Schopenhauer\n*Baruch Spinoza\n*Timothy L.S. Sprigge\n*Galen Strawson\n*Eduard von Hartmann\n*Alfred North Whitehead\n*Ken Wilber\n*Sewall Wright\n*Wilhelm Wundt\n*Gary Zukav
Detractors from panpsychism
\n*Empedocles\n*Democritus\n*C. D. Broad\n*Patricia Churchland\n*Paul Churchland\n*Daniel Dennett\n*Jaegwon Kim\n*Colin McGinn\n*C. Lloyd Morgan\n*Karl Popper\n*John Searle\n*B. F. Skinner
See also
\n*Animism\n*Hylozoism
External links
\n*Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Panpsychism\n*The Catholic Encyclopedia - Panpsychism\n*consciousentities.com - Philosophical Deadends - Panpsychism\n*Bibliography on Panpsychism compiled by David Chalmers\n*panpsychism.net
Category:Philosophy of mind
