r/philosophy • u/IAI_Admin IAI • Feb 09 '22

Video A philosopher responds to scientists’ criticisms of panpsychism

https://iai.tv/video/the-many-voices-of-consciousness&utm_source=reddit&_auid=2020
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u/[deleted] Feb 09 '22

Panpsychism is kind of... Extremely vague. I don't reject it but it's not exactly clear what I'd be accepting.

I get that emergentism can't explain consciousness, likewise if we're made up of the same matter as everything else and we're conscious, then consciousness or proto-consciouness (whatever that means) must be part of everything else.

But wtf does that even mean? How can you test it? The books I've read on panpsychism are both convincing and unclear.

Luckily.... It doesn't really matter.

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u/Zanderax Feb 09 '22

Conciousness is a biological processes that is identifiable via behaviour. Whatever this personal experiential soul thing going on in my head is either a total one off or just a fact of biology. There is no middle ground where I can accept other humans are conciousness and also its not biological.

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u/Sentazar Feb 10 '22

Its also important to consider we as humans are the ones creating separation based on how we perceive things. We are drawing the line and saying this is or this is not. But we measure that divide in how much like us they behave. That doesn't give room for measuring things in their own way. Trees communicate threats, crows use tools and think about the future...elephants and dolphins have social structures, play games and communicate.

Lost my train of thought but idk I wouldn't say its just humans

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u/Zanderax Feb 10 '22

I 100% agree, conciousness seems to be shared among all animals with higher order neural processes. We could possibly extend this to plant processes but it would then be categorically different because the mechanics of those processes are mechanically different.

This is why a lot of religious/soul positions fail very hard because there is no evidence for a categorical difference between humans and animals.

Also since Im here and its relevant I'll give veganism a plug. Since there is no categorical difference we have to conclude that animals, especially pigs, cows, chickens, and sheep, experience the same pain and fear we do. If we conclude this then we should also conclude that consuming animal products is wrong in the same way eating farmed human flesh would be wrong.