Panpsychism: The Philosophy of the Sensuous Cosmos

Panpsychism: The Philosophy of the Sensuous Cosmos

by Peter Ells
Panpsychism: The Philosophy of the Sensuous Cosmos

Panpsychism: The Philosophy of the Sensuous Cosmos

by Peter Ells

Paperback

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Overview

Materialism asserts that the universe and everything within it, including ourselves, is a deterministic machine, trapped until the end of time on the rigid tracks of inviolable laws. Only the mechanisms of physics - forces, electrical charges, and so on - are consequential; nothing else matters. Experiences, such as the taste of honey, feelings, thoughts, choices: everything concerning the mind is an illusion, or is at best a useless and absurd epiphenomenon. This accessible and engagingly-written book is a serious philosophical work, giving solid reasons for rejecting materialism, and proposing an alternative metaphysical framework that is fully consistent with science. In the sensuous cosmos, our essence is that we experience the world in all its exquisite, sensual beauty and unbearable suffering.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781846945052
Publisher: Collective Ink
Publication date: 08/16/2011
Pages: 226
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.50(d)

Table of Contents

1 Material World 1

Personhood, folk psychology, and libertarian free will 4

Material world 6

Navigation chart 8

2 Consciousness 14

What is consciousness? 15

The role of consciousness 17

How extensive is consciousness? 18

Cartesian dualism 20

The hard problem 21

The mind-body problem 23

Some other theories of consciousness 24

Science and consciousness 27

3 Science 28

Scientific method and scientific progress 29

Scientific progress and reality 32

Completed physics 33

Reductionism 35

Quantum physics 37

Young's slits 39

Schrodinger's cat 41

The pragmatics of quantum mechanics 43

The Copenhagen interpretation 44

The need for an ontology 46

Conceptual foundations 50

Metaphysical assumptions 51

4 Existence 53

Four definitions of existence 54

1 Experiential existence 55

2 Empirical existence 56

3 Material existence 57

4 Mathematical existence 61

About these definitions of existence 62

Critiquing physicalism 66

Physicalism and material existence defined 67

The early universe 69

Consequences for physicalism 73

Introducing idealist panpsychism 74

5 Idealist Panpsychism 79

Panpsychism 79

Tegmark's physicalism 80

A Tegmarkian dodecahedral universe 81

Critique of Tegmark 82

Idealist panpsychism 83

A panpsychic dodecahedral universe 85

Strict idealist panpsychism 89

Mind, body, and world 92

Categorizing idealist panpsychism 94

Contrasting the dodecahedral universes 95

The scope of idealist panpsychism 96

Philosophical view points 97

Some questions and answers about idealist panpsychism 99

6 Causation 103

The problem of mental causation 104

Causal relationships among the classical, hard sciences 107

Present day and 'completed' physics 110

Causation and idealist panpsychism 113

Questions and answers about causation 114

7 Resume 119

8 Quantum Mind 126

Quantum approaches to mind 127

Predictions of idealist panpsychism 128

The character of classical theory 130

The character of quantum theory 131

The parable of the plate 136

Quantum mind and the parable of the plate 138

Idealist panpsychism and quantum mechanics 139

Free will 148

9 Pain and Suffering 149

Ana Maria 149

Daniel Dennett on pain 152

Dennett of suffering 154

Simon Weston 156

The medical profession 158

David Hodgson and pain 159

Dining out 160

10 Free Will 162

Two contrasting viewpoints 163

1 Libertarian free will (FW) 163

2 Physical system (PS) 163

Robert Kane's model of free will 165

Mind-body causation 167

Physical systems 169

Stapp and panpsychism 171

Idealist panpsychism and free will 172

A human person 175

Chemical-Man 178

Reconciliation of the FW and PS viewpoints 180

11 Sensuous Cosmos 184

Physicalism 185

Idealist panpsychism 187

Plausibility 189

A library of panpsychism 190

Berkeley's idealism 193

Some technical points 195

The hard problem revisited 198

Sailing on into uncharted waters 200

The spirit of the age 201

Credo: a personal statement 203

References 207

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