April 20, 2009

Mind that Abides

Mind that Abides. Panpsychism in the new millennium

Edited by David Skrbina. University of Michigan at Dearborn Advances in Consciousness Research, 75 Benjamins Publishing Company. 2009. xiv, 401 pp. John.

Panpsychism is the view that all things, living and nonliving, possess some mind like quality. It stands in sharp contrast to the traditional notion of mind as the property of humans and (perhaps) a few select ‘higher animals’. Though surprising at first glance, panpsychism has a long and noble history in both Western and Eastern thought. Overlooked by analytical, materialist philosophy for most of the 20th century, it is now experiencing a renaissance of sorts in several areas of inquiry. A number of recent books - including Skrbina’s Panpsychism in the West (2005) and Strawson et al’s Consciousness and its Place in Nature (2006) - have established panpsychism as respectable and viable. Mind That Abides builds on these works. It takes panpsychism to be a plausible theory of mind and then moves forward to work out the philosophical, psychological and ethical implications. With 17 contributors from a variety of fields, this book promises to mark a wholesale change in our philosophical outlook.

• More information: Book webpage.

 Table of contents

David Skrbina

1–29

Part I. Analysis and science

31

2. Realistic monism: Why physicalism entails panpsychism, and on the Sesmet theory of subjectivity

Galen Strawson

33–65

3. Halting the descent into panpsychism: A quantum thermofield theoretical perspective

Gordon G. Globus

67–82

4. Mind under matter

Sam Coleman

83–107

5. The conscious connection: A psycho-physical bridge between brain and pan-experiential quantum geometry

Stuart R. Hameroff and Jon Powell

109–127

6. Can the panpsychist get around the combination problem?

Phil Goff

129–135

7. Universal correlates of consciousness

Stephen Deiss

137–158

8. Panpsychism, the Big-Bang-Argument, and the dignity of life

Patrick Spät

159–176

Part II. Process philosophy

177

9. Back to Whitehead? Galen Strawson and the rediscovery of panpsychism

Pierfrancesco Basile

179–199

10. Does process externalism support panpsychism? The relational nature of the physical world as a foundation for the conscious mind

Riccardo Manzotti

201–220

11. The dynamics of possession: An introduction to the sociology of Gabriel Tarde

Didier Debaise

221–230

12. Finite eventism

Carey R. Carlson

231–250

Part III. Metaphysics and mind

251

13. Zero-person and the psyche

Graham Harman

253–282

14. “All things think:” Panpsychism and the metaphysics of nature

Iain Hamilton Grant

283–299

15. ‘Something there?’ James and Fechner meet in a Pluralistic Universe

Katrin Solhdju

301–313

16. Panpsychic presuppositions of Samkhya metaphysics

Jaison A. Manjaly

315–323

17. The awareness of rock: East-Asian understandings and implications

Graham Parkes

325–340

18. Why has the West failed to embrace panpsychism?

Freya Mathews

341–360

19. Minds, objects, and relations: Toward a dual-aspect ontology

David Skrbina

361–382

References

383–397

Index

399–401