THE NORMATIVE PROBLEM FOR PANPSYCHISM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5840/eps202562227Keywords:
panpsychism, phenomenal consciousness, experiences, qualia, sentience, moral status, philosophy of mind, reflective equilibrium, ethicsAbstract
This article addresses a normative problem for panpsychist views of consciousness. This problem arises when panpsychism is combined with sentientism. According to sentientism, entities endowed with phenomenal consciousness have a special moral status. According to panpsychism, all entities in the universe have phenomenal consciousness in some form. Synthesizing these positions leads to a violation of the normative asymmetry between living and nonliving entities, and potentially leads to a revision of established moral beliefs. The article argues that we have good reasons for both panpsychism and sentientism, and therefore we cannot avoid the normative problem by simply rejecting one of them. We identify four strategies that panpsychists might employ to address the normative challenge they face: narrowing morally relevant phenomenal properties to valence properties, abandoning panpsychism in favor of panprotosychism, dissociating the phenomenal and normative aspects of experience, and revising our ethics to include new entities. However, none of the strategies provides a definitive solution to the normative problem, because they either have counterintuitive implications or undermine the motivation for developing panpsychist theories of consciousness. We conclude that the normative problem poses a serious obstacle to the justification of panpsychism as a theory of consciousness that satisfies the requirements of reflective equilibrium.
References
Брайант Л.Р. Демократия объектов / Пер. с англ. О. Мышкина. Пермь: Гиле Пресс, 2019. 320 с.
Гаспаров И.Г. Панпсихизм в поисках самоопределения // Эпистемология и философия науки. 2018. Т. 55. № 2. С. 212–219.
Гусев А.А. Панпсихизм в современной аналитической философии сознания // Философская антропология. 2021. Т. 7. № 2. С. 85–103.
Кузнецов А.В. Конститутивный панпсихизм и проблема ментальной каузальности // Вестник Московского университета. Серия 7: Философия. 2015. № 6. С. 106–117.
Кузнецов А.В. Аргумент против конститутивного панпсихизма // Вестник Томского государственного университета. Философия. Социология. Политология. 2016. № 4 (36). С. 60–68.
Мортон Т. Гиперобъекты: Философия и экология после конца мира / Пер. с англ. В. Абраменко. Пермь: Гиле Пресс, 2019. 284 с.
Ролз Дж. Теория справедливости / Пер. с англ. В.В. Целищева. М.: ЛКИ, 2010. 536 с.
Смагина Е.Б. Манихейство по ранним источникам. М.: Восточная литература, 2011. 519 с.
Сысоев М.С. Философия сознания Уильяма Джеймса: между нейтральным монизмом и панпсихизмом // Философия. Журнал Высшей школы экономики. 2020. Т. 4. № 4. С. 249–265.
Сысоев М.С. Фундаментальная перцепция в философии Лейбница и современный панпсихизм // Эпистемология и философия науки. 2022. Т. 59. № 3. С. 202–219.
Сысоев М.С. О связи трудной проблемы сознания и комбинаторной проблемы панпсихизма // Вестник Северного (Арктического) федерального университета. Серия: Гуманитарные и социальные науки. 2023. Т. 23. № 2. С. 91–102.
Сысоев М.С. Натуралистический панпсихизм в контексте трудной проблемы сознания: дис. … канд. филос. наук. М., 2024. 213 с.
Харман Г. Четвероякий объект: Метафизика вещей после Хайдеггера / Пер. с англ. А. Морозова, О. Мышкина. Пермь: Гиле Пресс, 2015. 152 с.
Чалмерс Д. Сознающий ум: В поисках фундаментальной теории / Пер. с англ. В.В. Васильева. М.: УРСС: ЛИБРОКОМ, 2013. 512 с.
Birch, J. “Materialism and the Moral Status of Animals”, Philosophical Quarterly, 2022, vol. 72, no. 4, pp. 795–815.
Blaesi, Z. “The Moral Parody Argument Against Panpsychism”, Philosophical Studies, 2021, vol. 179, no. 1, pp. 1821–1852.
Block, N. “Troubles with Functionalism”, in: Savage, C.W. (ed.) Perception and Cognition: Issues in the Foundations of Psychology. University of Minnesota Press, 1978, pp. 261–325.
Bohn, E.D. “Normativity All the Way Down: From Normative Realism to Pannormism”, Synthese, 2018, vol. 195, pp. 4107–4124.
Brüntrup, G. “Emergent Panpsychism”, in: Brüntrup, G. & Jaskolla, L. (eds.) Panpsychism: Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 48–71.
Bryant, L.R. Demokratiya ob”ektov [The Democracy of Objects], trans. by O. Myshkin. Perm: Hyle Press, 2019, 320 p. (Trans. into Russian)
Chalmers, D.J. “Panpsychism and Panprotopsychism”, in: Brüntrup, G. & Jaskolla, L. (eds.) Panpsychism: Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 19–47.
Chalmers, D.J. Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy. W.W. Norton, 2022, 520 p.
Chalmers, D.J. Soznayushchii um: V poiskakh fundamental’noi teorii [The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory], trans. by V.V. Vasilyev. Moscow: URSS: LIBROKOM, 2013, 512 p. (Trans. into Russian)
Coleman, S. “Panpsychism and Neutral Monism: How to Make up One’s Mind”, in: Brüntrup, G. & Jaskolla, L. (eds.) Panpsychism: Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 249–282.
Dung, L. “Preserving the Normative Significance of Sentience”, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2024, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 8–30.
Frankish, K. “Panpsychism and the Depsychologization of Consciousness”, Aristotelian Society Supplementary, 2021, vol. 95, no. 1, pp. 51–70.
Gasparov, I.G. “Panpsikhizm v poiskakh samoopredeleniya” [Panpsychism in the Search of a Self-Definition], Epistemology & Philosophy of Science, 2018, vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 212–219. (In Russian)
Goff, P. Consciousness and Fundamental Reality. Oxford University Press, 2017, 290 p.
Goff, P. Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness. Pantheon, 2019, 256 p.
Gottlieb, J. & Fischer, B. “The Ethical Implications of Panpsychism”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 2024, vol. 102, no. 4, pp. 1030–1044.
Gusev, A.A. “Panpsikhizm v sovremennoi analiticheskoi filosofii soznaniya” [Panpsychism in the Contemporary Analytical Philosophy of Mind], Philosophical Anthropology, 2021, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 85–103. (In Russian)
Harman, G. Chetveroyakii ob”ekt: Metafizika veshchei posle Khaideggera [The Quadruple Object], trans. by A. Morozov, O. Myshkin. Perm: Hyle Press, 2015, 152 p. (Trans. into Russian)
Hartshorne, C. The Zero Fallacy and Other Essays in Neoclassical Metaphysics. Open Court, 1997, 256 p.
Kagan, S. “What’s Wrong with Speciesism?”, Journal of Applied Philosophy, 2016, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 1–21.
Kammerer, F. “The Normative Challenge for Illusionist Views of Consciousness”, Ergo, 2019, vol. 6, no. 32, pp. 891–924.
Kammerer, F. “Ethics Without Sentience: Facing Up to the Probable Insignificance of Phenomenal Consciousness”, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2022, vol. 29, no. 3–4, pp. 180–204.
Korsgaard, C.M. “Personhood, Animals, and the Law”, Think, 2013, vol. 12, no. 34, pp. 25–32.
Kuznetsov, A.V. “Argument protiv konstitutivnogo panpsikhizma” [Argument Against Constitutive Panpsychism], Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science, 2016, no. 4 (36), pp. 60–68. (In Russian)
Kuznetsov, A.V. “Konstitutivnyi panpsikhizm i problema mental’noi kauzal’nosti” [Constitutive Panpsychism and the Problem of Mental Causation], Lomonosov Philosophy Journal, 2015, no. 6, pp. 106–117. (In Russian)
Lee, A.Y. “Speciesism and Sentientism”, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2022, vol. 29, no. 3–4, pp. 205–228.
Mackie, J.L. Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong. Penguin Books, 1977, 260 p.
Matthews, F. For the Love of Matter: A Contemporary Panpsychism. SUNY Press, 2003, 224 p.
Montemayor, C. “Panpsychism and Quantum Mechanics: Explanatory Challenges”, in: Montemayor, C. & de Barros, J.A. (eds.) Quanta and the Mind: Essays on the Connection between Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness. Springer, 2019, pp. 151–162.
Mørch, H.H. Panpsychism and Causation: A New Argument and a Solution to the Combination Problem. PhD thesis in Philosophy. Oslo, 2014. 243 p.
Morton, T. Giperob”ekty: Filosofiya i ekologiya posle kontsa mira [Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World], trans. by V. Abramenko. Perm: Hyle Press, 2019. 284 p. (Trans. into Russian)
Nagasawa, Y. & Wager, K. “Panpsychism and Priority Cosmopsychism”, in: Brüntrup, G. & Jaskolla, L. (eds.) Panpsychism: Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 113–129.
Rawls, J. Teoriya spravedlivosti [A Theory of Justice], trans. by V.V. Tselishchev. Moscow: LKI Publ., 2010. 536 p. (Trans. into Russian)
Roelofs, L. Combining Minds: How to Think about Composite Subjectivity. Oxford University Press, 2019. 360 p.
Roelofs, L. “Sentientism, Motivation, and Philosophical Vulcans”, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 2023, vol. 104, no. 2, pp. 301–323.
Rosenberg, G.H. A Place for Consciousness. Oxford University Press, 2004. 344 p.
Seager, W.E. “Consciousness, Information and Panpsychism”, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 1995, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 272–288.
Seager, W.E. “Consciousness, Value and Functionalism”, Psyche, 2001, vol. 7, pp. 1–19.
Seager, W.E. “Panpsychism Infusion”, in: Brüntrup, G. & Jaskolla, L. (eds.) Panpsychism: Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 229–248.
Skrbina, D. “Ethics, Eco-Philosophy, and Universal Sympathy”, Dialogue and Universalism, 2013, vol. 23, pp. 59–74.
Smagina, E.B. Manikheistvo po rannim istochnikam [Manichaeism According to Early Sources]. Moscow: Vostochnaya literatura Publ., 2011. 519 p. (In Russian)
Sparrow, R. “Robots, Rape, and Representation”, International Journal of Social Robotics, 2017, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 465–477.
Strawson, G.J. “Mind and Being: The Primacy of Panpsychism”, in: Brüntrup, G. & Jaskolla, L. (eds.) Panpsychism: Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 75–112.
Sysoev, M.S. “Filosofiya soznaniya Uil’yama Dzheimsa: mezhdu neitral’nym monizmom i panpsikhizmom” [William James’s Philosophy of Mind: Between Neutral Monism and Panpsychism], Philosophy. Journal of the Higher School of Economics, 2020, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 249–265. (In Russian)
Sysoev, M.S. “Fundamental’naya pertseptsiya v filosofii Leibnitsa i sovremennyi panpsikhizm” [Fundamental Perception in Leibniz’s Philosophy and Contemporary Panpsychism], Epistemology & Philosophy of Science, 2022, vol. 59, no. 3, pp. 202– 219. (In Russian)
Sysoev, M.S. “O svyazi trudnoi problemy soznaniya i kombinatornoi problemy panpsikhizma” [On the Relation Between the Hard Problem of Consciousness and the Combination Problem for Panpsychism], Vestnik of NarFU. Philosophy, 2023, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 91–102. (In Russian)
Sysoev, M.S. Naturalisticheskii panpsikhizm v kontekste trudnoi problemy soznaniya [Naturalistic Panpsychism in the Context of the Hard Problem of Consciousness]. PhD thesis in Philosophy. Moscow, 2024, 213 p. (In Russian)
van der Deijl, W. “The Sentience Argument for Experientialism about Welfare”, Philosophical Studies, 2020, vol. 178, no. 1, pp. 187–208.
