Category Archives: panpsychism

Another befuddled person touts panpsychism, proposing some possible (but impossible) tests of the idea that all matter is conscious

May 28, 2020 – 9:00 am

I continue to be baffled by the presence and lucubrations of apparently sentient people who claim that consciousness inheres in all matter, from electrons to us. This view that everything (including the Universe itself) is conscious is called panpsychism, and I’ve written about it at length. Why is this cockeyed theory so popular? Because it purports to […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in consciousness, philosophy, woo | Comments (50)

New Scientist touts panpsychism

April 30, 2020 – 2:30 pm

“As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” Proverbs 26:11 Matthew sent me a link to this new article in New Scientist. Yes, yet another credulous git has fallen for panpsychism. Click on the screenshot to read just the first three paragraphs (it’s paywalled, though the content of this […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in neuroscience, New Age psychobabble, philosophy | Comments (75)

Panpsychism: a big bag of nothing

February 21, 2020 – 9:00 am

I was suckered by the Courtier’s Reply of panpsychists like Philip Goff, and so have finished his popular (i.e., trade) book, Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness. I am not going to summarize it or review it at length, as it says little beyond what I’ve summarized previously. It has not convinced […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in free will, philosophy, woo | Comments (59)

Even more on panpsychism

February 16, 2020 – 12:15 pm

As I near the end of Philip Goff’s trade book (Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness), aimed at convincing the public that panpsychism is true, I came across a tweet that led me to an online “letters” conversation between Goff and philosopher/biologist Massimo Pigliucci, which you can read in the second screenshot […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in philosophy | Comments (67)

A philosophical red flag

February 11, 2020 – 1:15 pm

Okay, I took the bait and am now reading Philip Goff’s trade book on panpsychism, Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness. (Why do I let myself repeatedly fall victim to the Courtier’s Reply? I am a sucker.) It hasn’t convinced me so far that matter is somehow conscious, and yet there seem to […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in philosophy, woo | Comments (115)

Panpsychism: an interview and a critique

January 17, 2020 – 11:30 am

Yes, we’re gonna have more on panpsychism today, and, after I read Goff’s book (coming via interlibrary loan) I think I’m pretty much done. I’ve now finished Annaka Harris’s book book Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind, and, as I said yesterday, it’s a good read but suffers from her […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in consciousness, philosophy, woo | Comments (106)

A good critique of panpsychism but a lousy alternative

January 14, 2020 – 11:00 am

The article at hand was published by the Institute of Art and Ideas, a British organization that I hadn’t heard of but is described by Wikipedia thusly: The Institute of Art and Ideas is an arts organisation founded in 2008 in London. Its programming includes the world’s largest philosophy and music festival, HowTheLightGetsIn and the online channel IAI TV, where […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Deepakities, philosophy, physics, woo | Comments (68)

Another panpsychist flogs a dead theory

January 10, 2020 – 9:30 am

Sorry, I’m not yet done with panpsychism. The more I read about this theory, the more I’m puzzled that seemingly rational people accept such a grossly benighted view of consciousness. Seriously! Especially atheists, for panpsychism resembles theology in several ways: There is not a shred of evidence supporting its tenets. It was invented to plug […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in consciousness, philosophy, woo | Comments (92)

Pigliucci on panpsychism and Churchland on “intractable problems”

January 9, 2020 – 12:00 pm

I’ve had several public disagreements with Massimo Pigliucci (I believe he considers me a philosopher manqué), but I’m not so set in my ways that I can’t give him kudos when he writes a good paper or has some good ideas. And his new piece on Medium, which is largely a critique of panpsychism, is […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in consciousness, philosophy | Comments (57)

A BBC show on panpsychism once again shows that there’s no “there” there

January 8, 2020 – 9:30 am

UPDATE: In the first comment on my thread below, reader Coel calls our attention to a year-old critique of panpsychism by physicist Sabine Hossenfelder, “Electrons don’t think.” It makes some physics-related criticisms of panpsychism that I could not have made, but also adds a nice comment, a response to the claim (made by Goff among […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in consciousness, philosophy, woo | Comments (142)