Panpsychism Makes a Comeback; supported III (General)

by David Turell , Wednesday, January 31, 2018, 15:52 (2486 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: A new article supporting a panpsychism comeback:
https://qz.com/1184574/the-idea-that-everything-from-spoons-to-stones-are-conscious-is-...

QUOTE: "Such theories sound incredible, and perhaps they are. But then again, so is every other possible theory that explains consciousness. “The more I think about [any theory], the less plausible it becomes,” says Chalmers. “One starts as a materialist, then turns into a dualist, then a panpsychist, then an idealist,” he adds, echoing his paper on the subject. Idealism holds that conscious experience is the only thing that truly exists. From that perspective, panpsychism is quite moderate."

DAVID’s comment: I still think God is universal consciousness. It fits this discussion nicely.

dhw: I share Chalmer’s view that so far every theory sounds incredible. Bottom-up panpsychism is the alternative that I have been defending in our discussions as an alternative to your top-down form. I do not regard dualism as incompatible with either, and I have already offered a hypothesis that reconciles dualism and materialism to a certain degree.

What is incredible is that we are consciously here trying to figure out why we are here. All of reality sitting on a base of quantum mechanics which our consciousness tells us is counterfactual. No wonder we struggle to understand it. But we keep struggling because we are driven to find answers.