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The Routledge Handbook of Panpsychism
Panpsychism is the view that consciousness – the most puzzling and strangest phenomenon in the entire universe – is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of the world, though in a form very remote from human consciousness. At a very basic level, the world is awake. Panpsychism seems implausible to most, and yet it has experienced a remarkable renaissance of interest over the last quarter century. The reason is the stubbornly intractable problem of consciousness. Despite immense progress in understanding the brain and its relation to states of consciousness, we still really have no idea how consciousness emerges from physical processes which are presumed to be entirely non-conscious. The Routledge Handbook of Panpsychism provides a high-level comprehensive examination and assessment of the subject – its history and contemporary development. It offers 28 chapters, appearing in print here for the first time, from the world’s leading researchers on panpsychism. The chapters are divided into four sections that integrate panpsychism’s relevance with important issues in philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, metaphysics, and even The volume will be useful to students and scholars as both an introduction and as cutting-edge philosophical engagement with the subject. For anyone interested in a philosophical approach to panpsychism, the Handbook will supply fascinating and enlightening reading. The topics covered are highly diverse, representing a spectrum of views on the nature of mind and world from various standpoints which take panpsychism seriously.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
384 pages, Hardcover
Published December 2, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 7, 2023
This is a good volume! I especially appreciated the contributions from Goff ("Cosmopsychism, panpsychism and the grounding relation"), Howell ("Subjective physicalism and panpsychism), Horgan ("Strawson on panpsychism"), and Chalmers ("Idealism and the mind-body problem").
September 2, 2023
Great for reference -- not a casual read!
February 29, 2024
The single word that comes to mind is "turgid." Pretty much a slog to get through and tiny type, so I have to read it in small segments. It is disconcerting that he writes about Spinoza in the present tense, as though he's still alive and writing, too.
I'm reading many segments of this book out of ardent curiosity, not because I'm a professional nor even a student. I had to request it via inter-library loan from a university rather far from where I live, so my time to read it is limited, and I'm not likely to read the entire book. But it's well-organized, comprehensive and, so far, it is answering at least most of the questions I have. I'm still wondering about the difference between monism and panpsychism, so I hope I end up knowing whether there is one or what it is if there is a difference.
LATER:
It's a well-organized, comprehensive textbook with chapters by many different philosophers, so I recommend it. I didn't intend to read every chapter, but read selected ones. I learned a bit more, which was the goal. A sampling:
Chapter 9: [Bertrand] Russell’s Neutral Monism and Panpsychism
By Donovan Wishon
“Neutral monism is the view that both mental and material phenomena arise from a single kind of more basic reality (monism) which is neither mental nor material (neutral).” (p 87)
“Absolute idealism is the view that all human knowledge is mediated through conceptual structures which modify and distort the raw materials of experience, thereby obscuring the true fundamentally mind-life nature of reality. Some versions hold that reality consists entirely of a community of immaterial conscious beings, while others hold that all of reality is a single, indivisible conscious whole.” (p 88)
“Following [William] James (1904), he proposes that the transitory qualities we experience are intrinsically neither mental nor material, but rather ‘neutral’ in character. They become mental or material (or both) by being part of causal processes that are either psychological or physical (or both). Thus, Russell argues, ‘the mental and the physical are not distinguished by the stuff of which they are made, but only by their casual laws.’” (p 90)
Chapter 10: Panpsychism Reconsiders: A Historical and Philosophical Overview
By David Skrbina
“Though the concept is ancient, the term ‘panpsychism’ comes to us from the work of the Italian philosopher Francesco Patrizi, and his Nova de universis philosophia of 1591. The word derives from pan (‘all’) + psyche (‘mind’ or ‘soul’). Broadly conceived, it is the notion that all things possess some degree of mind, consciousness, or subjectivity. In principle, this reaches down to the smallest physical ultimates and upward to the cosmos as a whole. It admits of a surprisingly wide variety of interpretations.” (p 103)
Chapter 22: Panpsychism Versus Pantheism, Polytheism, and Cosmopsychism
By Yujin Nagasawa
“The term ‘panpsychism’ originates from ‘panpsychia,’ which the 16th century Italian philosopher Francesco Patrizi applied to his view that God’s phenomenality is a present throughout the cosmos. Hence, the first view that was labeled ‘panpsychism’ seems to be a version of pantheism. This is understandable given how similar panpsychism and pantheism initially appear. In Greek, ‘pan’ means ‘all,’ ‘psyche’ means ‘soul’ or ‘mind,’ and ‘theos’ means ‘God.’ Hence, panpsychism is the view that all is mind while pantheism is the view that all is God.” (p 260)
I'm reading many segments of this book out of ardent curiosity, not because I'm a professional nor even a student. I had to request it via inter-library loan from a university rather far from where I live, so my time to read it is limited, and I'm not likely to read the entire book. But it's well-organized, comprehensive and, so far, it is answering at least most of the questions I have. I'm still wondering about the difference between monism and panpsychism, so I hope I end up knowing whether there is one or what it is if there is a difference.
LATER:
It's a well-organized, comprehensive textbook with chapters by many different philosophers, so I recommend it. I didn't intend to read every chapter, but read selected ones. I learned a bit more, which was the goal. A sampling:
Chapter 9: [Bertrand] Russell’s Neutral Monism and Panpsychism
By Donovan Wishon
“Neutral monism is the view that both mental and material phenomena arise from a single kind of more basic reality (monism) which is neither mental nor material (neutral).” (p 87)
“Absolute idealism is the view that all human knowledge is mediated through conceptual structures which modify and distort the raw materials of experience, thereby obscuring the true fundamentally mind-life nature of reality. Some versions hold that reality consists entirely of a community of immaterial conscious beings, while others hold that all of reality is a single, indivisible conscious whole.” (p 88)
“Following [William] James (1904), he proposes that the transitory qualities we experience are intrinsically neither mental nor material, but rather ‘neutral’ in character. They become mental or material (or both) by being part of causal processes that are either psychological or physical (or both). Thus, Russell argues, ‘the mental and the physical are not distinguished by the stuff of which they are made, but only by their casual laws.’” (p 90)
Chapter 10: Panpsychism Reconsiders: A Historical and Philosophical Overview
By David Skrbina
“Though the concept is ancient, the term ‘panpsychism’ comes to us from the work of the Italian philosopher Francesco Patrizi, and his Nova de universis philosophia of 1591. The word derives from pan (‘all’) + psyche (‘mind’ or ‘soul’). Broadly conceived, it is the notion that all things possess some degree of mind, consciousness, or subjectivity. In principle, this reaches down to the smallest physical ultimates and upward to the cosmos as a whole. It admits of a surprisingly wide variety of interpretations.” (p 103)
Chapter 22: Panpsychism Versus Pantheism, Polytheism, and Cosmopsychism
By Yujin Nagasawa
“The term ‘panpsychism’ originates from ‘panpsychia,’ which the 16th century Italian philosopher Francesco Patrizi applied to his view that God’s phenomenality is a present throughout the cosmos. Hence, the first view that was labeled ‘panpsychism’ seems to be a version of pantheism. This is understandable given how similar panpsychism and pantheism initially appear. In Greek, ‘pan’ means ‘all,’ ‘psyche’ means ‘soul’ or ‘mind,’ and ‘theos’ means ‘God.’ Hence, panpsychism is the view that all is mind while pantheism is the view that all is God.” (p 260)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews