Panpsychism
/panˈsaɪkɪz(ə)m/noun
The view that mind or experience is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of the physical world, present in some degree in all matter.
The Greek roots
Literally: “all-soul doctrine”
The story of the word
The Italian philosopher Francesco Patrizi coined the term in the 1590s, though the position is far older, with Thales reported as holding that all things are full of gods. Panpsychism was a minority embarrassment for most of the twentieth century and then came back through the hard problem of consciousness. Philosophers who take it seriously are usually not claiming that rocks have thoughts, only that experience does not appear from nowhere at some arbitrary point up the ladder.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Renaissance Latin coinage → English
Same family
In a sentence
He argues that panpsychism is less absurd than the alternative of consciousness appearing from nothing.
The seminar spent two hours on panpsychism and the combination problem.