Panpsychism: Only a “revised materialism”
by Galen Strawson
Italian translation by Enrico Volpe of a revised version of Strawson, G. (2017), Physicalist Panpsychism. In S. Schneider, M. Velmans (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, 2nd ed., New York: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 374-390. Panpsychism is a plausible theory of the fundamental nature of reality. It’s fully compatible with everything in physics, and with physicalism. It’s an error to think that being physical excludes being mental or experiential. Anyone who endorses the following three views—[i] materialism or physicalism is true, [ii], consciousness is real, [iii] there is no ‘radical emergence’—should at least endorse ‘micropsychism’ or psychism, the view that [iv] mind or consciousness is a fundamental feature of concrete reality, already present in the most basic forms of concrete reality. And given [v] the apparent interconvertibility (fungibility) of all fundamental forms of physical stuff, panpsychism appears to be the most plausible form of psychism.
Keywords: Panpsychism; Psychism; Physicalism; Consciousness; Radical Emergence; Micropsychism
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