Pansychism; a supporting essay (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, September 01, 2019, 15:31 (1910 days ago) @ dhw

QUOTE: "In the public mind, physics is on its way to giving us a complete picture of the nature of space, time and matter. While in this mindset, panpsychism seems improbable, as physics does not attribute experience to fundamental particles. But once we realise that physics tells us nothing about the intrinsic nature of the entities it talks about, and indeed that the only thing we know for certain about the intrinsic nature of matter is that at least some material things have experiences, the issue looks very different. All we get from physics is this big black-and-white abstract structure, which we must somehow colour in with intrinsic nature. We know how to colour in one bit of it: the brains of organisms are coloured in with experience. How to colour in the rest? The most elegant, simple, sensible option is to colour in the rest of the world with the same pen.
"Panpsychism is crazy. But it is also highly likely to be true."

DAVID: dhw will like this. My belief is a parallel in that I think we live in the consciousness of God.

dhw: He’s not talking about “we”, but about all materials, and I don’t understand what you mean by “in the consciousness of God”. Many panpsychists are also theists, but the question this author is raising is whether it is right to distinguish between those particles that combine to make organic beings and those particles which combine to make what we believe to be inanimate objects. The behaviour of particles in quantum physics is also “crazy”, but is believed by many to represent some kind of reality that is “more real” than the one we are familiar with. I do like the article, which I think is well argued, but I still find it difficult to believe that stones and grains of sand and drops of water have even the most rudimentary consciousness of the kind that would also be necessary for the “fundamental particles” to create life, reproduction and evolution. That is why I put it on a par with chance and God as a theory I cannot have faith in.

To answer your question I think God created us in His mind