Handbook of Panpsychism
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THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PANPSYCHISM “This book provides a rich and novel discussion of one of the most exciting (and hardest) issues in philosophy, namely the nature of consciousness, by taking seriously panpsychism. It contains a large variety and number of quality contributions, both from a historical and a contemporary perspective, which makes it a book of reference indispensable for anyone interested in the field. A great read and an inspiring contribution to the philosophical debate about the nature of consciousness.” Jiri Benovsky, University of Fribourg, Switzerland “The rise to prominence of panpsychism is a response to a growing disillusionment with orthodox physicalism. If you want to know the history, strengths and weaknesses of this surprising revival of an ancient metaphysics, this wide-ranging collection is an excellent place to start.” Howard Robinson, Central European University, Hungary 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 ethics. 1. Historical Reflections 2. Forms of Panpsychism 3. Comparative Alternatives 4. How Does Panpsychism Work? 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. William Seager is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He works primarily in the philosophy of mind and consciousness studies; his most recent book is Theories of Consciousness (2nd edition; Routledge, 2016). ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOKS IN PHILOSOPHY Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy are state-of-the-art surveys of emerging, newly refreshed, and important fields in philosophy, providing accessible yet thorough assessments of key problems, themes, thinkers, and recent developments in research. All chapters for each volume are specially commissioned, and written by leading scholars in the field. Carefully edited and organized, Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy provide indispensable reference tools for students and researchers seeking a comprehensive overview of new and exciting topics in philosophy. They are also valuable teaching resources as accompaniments to textbooks, anthologies, and research-orientated publications. ALSO AVAILABLE: THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE CITY THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF Edited by Sharon M. Meagher, Samantha Noll, and EMERGENCE Joseph S. Biehl Edited by Sophie Gibb, Robin Hendry, and Tom Lancaster THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PANPSYCHISM THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF Edited by William Seager THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVIL Edited by Thomas Nys and Stephen de Wijze THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF EMOTION THEORY THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF Edited by Andrea Scarantino SOCIAL EPISTEMOLOGY Edited by Peter Graham, Nikolaj Jang Lee, David THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF Henderson, and Miranda Fricker PHILOSOPHY OF RELATIVISM Edited by Martin Kusch For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbooks- in-Philosophy/book-series/RHP THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PANPSYCHISM Edited by William Seager First published 2020 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Taylor & Francis The right of William Seager to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-81713-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-71770-8 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Apex CoVantage, LLC CONTENTS Notes on Contributors viii Preface to the Handbook xi 1 Introduction: A Panpsychist Manifesto 1 William Seager PART I Historical Reflections 13 2 Plato and Panpsychism 15 Daniel Dombrowski 3 Abhidharma Panprotopsychist Metaphysics of Consciousness 25 Monima Chadha 4 Spinoza’s Panpsychism 36 Martin Lin 5 Many-Minded Leibniz’s Many Minds 44 Graeme Hunter 6 Panpsychism in the 19th Century 53 David Skrbina 7 William James, Pure Experience, and Panpsychism 66 Andrew Bailey v Contents 8 Overcoming the Cartesian Legacy: Whitehead’s Revisionary Metaphysics 78 Pierfrancesco Basile 9 Russell’s Neutral Monism and Panpsychism 87 Donovan Wishon 10 Panpsychism Reconsidered: A Historical and Philosophical Overview 103 David Skrbina PART II Forms of Panpsychism 117 11 Beyond Cosmopsychism and the Great I Am: How the World Might be Grounded in Universal ‘Advaitic’ Consciousness 119 Miri Albahari 12 Living Cosmos Panpsychism 131 Freya Mathews 13 Cosmopsychism, Micropsychism and the Grounding Relation 144 Philip Goff 14 The Crux of Subjectivity: The Subjective Dimension of Consciousness and Its Role in Panpsychism 157 Michael Blamauer 15 Anomalous Dualism: A New Approach to the Mind-Body Problem 168 David Bourget PART III Comparative Alternatives 181 16 Subjective Physicalism and Panpsychism 183 Robert J. Howell 17 Panpsychism: A Cognitive Pluralist Perspective 192 Steven Horst 18 Neutral Monism Reborn: Breaking the Gridlock Between Emergence and Inherence 204 Michael Silberstein 19 Panpsychism and Non-standard Materialism: Some Comparative Remarks 218 Daniel Stoljar vi Contents 20 Panpsychism and Russellian Monism 230 Torin Alter and Sam Coleman PART IV How Does Panpsychism Work? 243 21 Can We Sum Subjects? Evaluating Panpsychism’s Hard Problem 245 Luke Roelofs 22 Panpsychism Versus Pantheism, Polytheism, and Cosmopsychism 259 Yujin Nagasawa 23 The Argument for Panpsychism From Experience of Causation 269 Hedda Hassel Mørch 24 A Quantum Cure for Panphobia 285 Paavo Pylkkänen 25 Panpsychism’s Combination Problem Is a Problem for Everyone 303 Angela Mendelovici 26 What Does “Physical” Mean? A Prolegomenon to Physicalist Panpsychism 317 Galen Strawson 27 Strawson on Panpsychism 340 Terry Horgan 28 Idealism and the Mind-Body Problem 353 David Chalmers Index 374 vii CONTRIBUTORS Miri Albahari teaches philosophy at the University of Western Australia. She works in comparative philosophy, on the epistemology and metaphysics of mystical states. Torin Alter is Professor of Philosophy at The University of Alabama. He writes mostly on consciousness and the mind-body problem Andrew Bailey is Associate Professor in Philosophy, and Associate Dean (Research & Graduate Studies) for the College of Arts at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He works on the philosophy of consciousness, embodied cognition and the ethics of AI, as well as the thought of William James. Pierfrancesco Basile is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Bern and at the KSA Luzern, Switzerland. His last book is Whitehead’s Metaphysics of Power: Reconstructing Modern Philosophy (Edinburgh UP, 2017). Michael Blamauer worked for several years in the field of philosophy of mind with special focus on panpsychism, notably editing The Mental as Fundamental: New Perspectives on Panpsychism (Ontos, 2011). David Bourget is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Digital Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario. He has published a number of articles on consciousness, its role in the mind, and its place in nature. Monima Chadha teaches philosophy at Monash University in Australia. She works in cross-cultural philosophy with special interest in Abhidharma Buddhism. David Chalmers is University Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science and Co-Director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness at New York University. Sam Coleman is Reader of Philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire. His main interest is in reconciling scientific accounts of matter and the brain with what