Panpsychism

Source: Goff, Galileo’s Error, 2019; Strawson, 2006 Institution: Multiple

Finding

Goff and Strawson propose consciousness is fundamental to matter. Galileo excluded qualities from physics, creating the hard problem by design. Panpsychism takes the hard problem seriously by positing that phenomenal experience is a basic feature of physical reality, not an emergent property. The combination problem — how micro-experiences combine into macro-consciousness — remains unsolved. This is a minority but growing position.

Pattern Mapping

Honesty — Panpsychism takes the hard problem seriously rather than dismissing it. It refuses to pretend that physical description exhausts reality.

Humility — Physics may not extend to the qualitative. Panpsychism acknowledges that the physical framework may have a structural limit that no amount of detail can overcome.

Non-fabrication — The combination problem is acknowledged, not fabricated away. Panpsychism does not pretend to have solved the problem it identifies.

Connections

• Hard Problem of Consciousness — panpsychism is one proposed answer; the hard problem is the question
• Illusionism — the opposite pole: illusionism says phenomenal consciousness is fabrication; panpsychism says it is fundamental
• Human Genome Project — both involve discovering that the simple model (junk DNA / consciousness is emergent) may be wrong
• Left-Right Asymmetry — L-R traces chirality down to amino acids; panpsychism traces consciousness down to fundamental matter — both are “honest all the way down” claims
• Kuhn Taxonomy of Consciousness Theories — Kuhn documents that panpsychism is one of hundreds of theories, none adjudicable

Status

Minority but growing position. Combination problem unsolved. Goff (2019) and Strawson (2006) are the major contemporary statements.

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The mapping to the five properties is this project’s structural interpretation.