Panpsychism in the West

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MIT Press, 2005 - 314 pagini
In Panpsychism in the West, the first comprehensive study of the subject, David Skrbina argues for the importance of panpsychism--the theory that mind exists, in some form, in all living and nonliving things--in consideration of the nature of consciousness and mind. Despite the recent advances in our knowledge of the brain and the increasing intricacy and sophistication of philosophical discussion, the nature of mind remains an enigma. Panpsychism, with its conception of mind as a general phenomenon of nature, uniquely links being and mind. More than a theory of mind, it is a meta-theory--a statement about theories of mind rather than a theory in itself. Panpsychism can parallel almost every current theory of mind; it simply holds that, no matter how one conceives of mind, such mind applies to all things. In addition, panpsychism is one of the most ancient and enduring concepts of philosophy, beginning with its pre-historical forms, animism and polytheism. Its adherents in the West have included important thinkers from the very beginning of Greek philosophy through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the present. Skrbina argues that panpsychism is long overdue for detailed treatment, and with this book he proposes to add impetus to the discussion of panpsychism in serious philosophical inquiries. After a brief discussion of general issues surrounding philosophy of mind, he traces the panpsychist views of specific philosophers, from the ancient Greeks and early Renaissance naturalist philosophers through the likes of William James, Josiah Royce, and Charles Sanders Peirce--always with a strong emphasis on the original texts. In his concluding chapter, "A Panpsychist World View," Skrbina assesses panpsychist arguments and puts them in a larger context. By demonstrating that there is panpsychist thinking in many major philosophers, Skrbina offers a radical challenge to the modern worldview, based as it is on a mechanistic cosmos of dead, insensate matter. Panpsychism in the Westwill be the standard work on this topic for years to come.

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Cuprins

Panpsychism and the Ontology of Mind
1
12 Basic Concepts in Ontology and Mind
5
13 Background on Monism
8
14 Dualism and Interaction
12
15 Panpsychism Defined
15
Ancient Origins
23
22 Plato
34
23 Aristotle
45
The AngloAmerican Perspective
141
62 William James
145
63 Royce Peirce and Other Sympathetic Thinkers
149
Panpsychism in the Twentieth Century Part I 19001950
157
72 Schiller
162
73 Alexander Lossky Troland and Dewey
165
74 The Process PhilosophersWhitehead and Russell
174
75 Phenomenology
180

24 Epicurus and the Atomic Swerve
51
25 Stoicism and the Pneuma
53
26 Remnants of Panpsychism in the Early Christian Era
58
Developments in the Renaissance Sixteenth and SeventeenthCentury Europe
65
Cardano Telesio Patrizi and Bruno
67
33 Gilbert and the Soul of the Magnet
76
34 Campanella and the Seventeenth Century
77
35 The Early Scientific Philosophers
81
36 Spinoza
87
37 Locke and Newton
91
38 Leibniz
95
Continental Panpsychism of the Eighteenth Century
101
42 Kant and Priestley
108
43 German Romanticism and the Naturphilosophie
112
Panpsychism Mechanism and Science in Nineteenth Century Germany
117
52 Fechner
122
53 Other ScientistPhilosophers of the Age
126
54 A Survey of the Field
133
55 Nietzsche and the Will to Power
137
76 Teilhard de Chardin
182
Scientific Perspectives
185
82 Panpsychism in Early and MidTwentiethCentury Science
188
83 Bateson
196
84 Recent Scientific Interpretations
198
85 Bohm and the Implicate Order
202
Panpsychism in the Twentieth Century Part II 1950Present
207
91 Hartshorne
208
92 Developments in the 1960s and the 1970s
217
Panpsychism and Environmental Philosophy
223
94 Recent Thoughts Pro and Con
235
Toward a Panpsychist Worldview
249
102 Opposing Views
255
103 Into the Third Millennium
265
Notes
271
Bibliography
291
Index
307
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Despre autor (2005)

David Skrbina is a Lecturer in Philosophy in the Department of Humanities at the University of Michigan at Dearborn.

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