Panpsychism

Photo by Oliver Paaske on Unsplash

Panpsychism is a philosophical idea that seems to be getting more and more popular. I just can’t wrap my head around it. The basic idea is that mind is everywhere. In other words, everything in the universe has something mental about it. Rocks, water, and air in some minimal sense have minds. The thing is, as far as I know, there is no evidence of this.

I’m not even sure how panpsychism could be proven. A rock can’t communicate. It doesn’t react to stimuli. It only moves if something moves it. The only conceivable way to prove panpsychism is if they discover some kind of mind particle that exists in all matter.

I get why someone would find panpsychism appealing, though. I sometimes act as if it’s true when I interact with inanimate objects. I apologize to my car if I hit a pothole and things like that. It’s also a neat workaround of the dilemma between physicalism and dualism. If everything in the physical world has a mind of some type, there’s no more mystery. That’s no reason to think panpsychism is true, though.

It’s a little like the many worlds theory that physicists throw around. It’s mathematically and logically possible, but there’s no evidence for it. Mathematically and logically is no reason to believe in something.

What it all boils down to is that I would be shocked if panpsychism turned out to be true. Even though it has many adherents in the philosophical community, I don’t buy it. I don’t care how well it solves the mind/body problem.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.