NDLI: The Real Combination Problem: Panpsychism, Micro-Subjects, and Emergence

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Coleman, Sam
Copyright Year	2013
Abstract	Taking their motivation from the perceived failure of the reductive physicalist project concerning consciousness, panpsychists ascribe subjectivity to fundamental material entities in order to account for macro-consciousness. But there exists an unresolved tension within the mainstream panpsychist position, the seriousness of which has yet to be appreciated. I capture this tension as a dilemma, and offer advice to panpsychists on how to resolve it. The dilemma is as follows: Panpsychists take the micro-material realm to feature phenomenal properties, plus micro-subjects to whom these properties belong. However, it is impossible to explain the generation of a macro-subject (like one of us) in terms of the assembly of micro-subjects, for, as I show, subjects cannot combine. Therefore the panpsychist explanatory project is derailed by the insistence that the world’s ultimate material constituents are subjects of experience. The panpsychist faces a choice of giving up her explanatory ambitions, or of giving up the claim that the ultimates are subjects. I argue that the latter option is preferable, leading to neutral monism, on which phenomenal qualities are irreducible but subjects are reducible. So panpsychists should be neutral monists.
Starting Page	19
Ending Page	44
Page Count	26
File Format	PDF
ISSN	01650106
Journal	Erkenntnis
Volume Number	79
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	15728420
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2013-01-20
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Philosophy Epistemology Ontology Ethics Logic
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Philosophy Logic

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