Panpsychism and the Religious Attitude

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Panpsychism and the Religious Attitude

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D. S. Clarke - Author

Price: $65.50
Hardcover - 212 pages

Release Date: February 2003

ISBN10: 0-7914-5685-4
ISBN13: 978-0-7914-5685-9

Price: $23.95
Paperback - 212 pages

Release Date: February 2003

ISBN10: 0-7914-5686-2
ISBN13: 978-0-7914-5686-6

Summary

Defends panpsychism, the view that mentality is present in all natural bodies with unified and persisting organization.

Human beings have thoughts, sensations, and feelings and think that at least some of this mental life is shared with domestic and wild animals. But, are there reduced degrees of mentality found in mosquitoes, bacteria, and even more primitive natural bodies? Panpsychists think so and have defended this belief throughout the history of philosophy, beginning with the ancient Greeks and continuing into the present. In this bold, challenging book, D. S. Clarke outlines reasons for accepting panpsychism and defends the doctrine against its critics. He proposes it as an alternative to the mechanistic materialism and humanism that dominate present-day philosophy.

"Clarke doesn't make overblown claims of having proven the validity of the panpsychist position, preferring instead to have rendered it in a way that makes it a plausible alternative to humanism and mechanism. For too long, the panpsychist position has been tied to a theological mission. This book is fascinating in the ways it works to disentangle panpsychism from those problems." — Warren G. Frisina, author of The Unity of Knowledge and Action: Toward a Nonrepresentational Theory of Knowledge

"While the discussion is focused on contemporary thinkers, Clarke situates the debate within the history of Western thought. This gives historical depth to the argument. Though the argument is primarily Anglo-American analytical philosophy in orientation, it takes seriously other types of philosophical approaches with sympathy and understanding." — J. Harley Chapman, coeditor of Interpreting Neville

D. S. Clarke is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He is the author of many books including Philosophy’s Second Revolution: Early and Recent Analytic Philosophy.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Introduction

What is Panpsychism?
Analogical Inferences
Epistemological Questions

2. Versions of Panpsychism

Greek Origins
Leibniz's Monadology
The Panpsychism of Whitehead's Process and Reality
Hartshorne's Reformulation
Nagel on Mentality in Wholes and Parts
The Analogical Reasoning of Fechner and Chalmers

3. Humanist and Mechanist Alternatives

Humanism and Naturalism
Behavioral and Functionalist Descriptions of Language Use
Some Criticisms of Functionalism
Self-Consciousness and Freedom
Intentionality

4. Mental Ascriptions

Ascribing Sensations
Social Aspects of Attitude Ascriptions
Mentality and Spontaneity in the Infrahuman

5. Mentality and Evolution

Mechanism and the Origination Argument
Does the Panpsychist Thesis Extend to Fundamental Particles?
Resultant and Emergent Properties
The Role of Spontaneity in Evolution

6. The Theistic Alternative

Universe-Wide Mentality
Locke's Argument for God's Existence
Swinburne's Argument from Consciousness

7. The Religious Attitude

The Religious Attitude and Theology
Linguistic Fideism
Practical Inferences and Moral Overrides
The Positive Drift for Panpsychism

Notes

References

Index

Related Subjects

Metaphysics
Process Philosophy

41434/41435(JFB/JB/FK)