| |
Panpsychism (Greek pan, ‘all’, psyche, ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’) is the doctrine that everything has mental properties. Even micro-physical particles, it is said, have mental properties. Most contemporary philosophers find panpsychism too incredible to take seriously, but one, T. Nagel, has provided an argument for it. Nagel says that we explain properties of large-scale objects, such as trees and brains, in terms of the properties of their micro-physical constituents. Thus the physical properties of large-scale objects are explained in terms of the physical properties of their constituents. But brains also have mental properties, and their mental properties can only be explained in terms of the mental (and not physical) properties of their micro-physical constituents. Therefore the micro-physical constituents of brains have mental properties. And since the micro-physical constituents of brains are just the same as the micro-physical particles found throughout the inanimate universe, all micro-physical particles must have mental properties. AJ
See also mind-body problem.Further reading C. McGinn, The Character of Mind; , T. Nagel, Mortal Questions. |
|
