Emergentist Panpsychism
There are many possible forms of panpsychism. In this paper, I discuss a type of panpsychism in which the complex mental states of higher-level entities emerge from a system, or organization, of fundamental entities which possess extremely simple forms of mentality. I argue that this
sort of panpsychism is surprisingly plausible, especially in light of the notorious difficulties raised by consciousness. Emergentist panpsychism faces a distinctive challenge, however. In so far as panpsychism embraces emergentism of the mental, a purely physicalist emergence seems to be
metaphysically more economical. I will argue that a basic analysis of emergence throws this claim into doubt.
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: University of Toronto, Email: [email protected]
Publication date: 01 January 2012
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