hen I was small I often entertained the idea that
the Moon was alive and observing me. On my
way home from school, I enjoyed looking up into
the sky, believing f g
ensure that I arrive
which is the belief j
stones, trees and
Jean Piaget, the S f
developmental ps h l ll d
many examples o
bringing home mo f
same time so that f
and moving stone
so that they would y
the same view. As g
commonly presen i hild d d
disappear as they.
A closely relate y
panpsychism. Unlik i i y hi d
not necessarily at f f
to inanimate objec
consciousness to g f
panpsychism, eve hi g i h U i i l di g
people, trees, rock l d d b i
particles – is cons
fundamental ingre.
Many regard pa hi g
hypothesis. For ex f
20th-Century Aust
that panpsychism y
verbal, or grossly mi l di g”
However, some i i d
philosophers have
come to think that
panpsychism may ff
solution to one of
mysteries concern
existence.W
CONSCIOUS MYSTERY
In HG Wells’s short story The Country Of The Blind, a
mountaineer called Nuñez arrives at a hidden valley that
is cut off from the rest of the world. The valley is
occupied by a population consisting entirely of blind
people. Nuñez tells them that he has the fifth sense
called ‘sight’ but no one believes him. After living there
for some time he falls in love with a local woman. The
elders, however, object to their marriage because Nuñez
is obsessed with the ‘non-existent’ fifth sense. His
doctor suggests Nuñez’s eyes, which are causing his
‘delusions’, be removed. Is it really impossible, even in
principle, for Nuñez to make the people in the country
comprehend what it is like to see things?
Wells’s story is reminiscent of a philosophical thought
experiment introduced in 1982 by the philosopher Frank
Jackson at the Australian National University, which
vividly illustrates the mystery of consciousness. Imagine
Mary, a brilliant future scientist who has always lived in a
black-and-white room. Although she has never been
outside her room in her entire life, she has learned
everything there is to know about reality by studying
physics, chemistry and neuroscience from black-and-
white textbooks and lectures on a black-and-white
television. She knows exactly how the brain works and
what kind of neural process takes place in any given
situation. Suppose now that Mary leaves her room for the
first time in her life and looks at, say, a ripe tomato. It
seems reasonable to think that she will say, ‘Wow, this is
what it is like to see red!’ She will learn something new.
This seems to suggest that some knowledge can only be
captured by conscious experience.
The brain is a highly complex system with the capacity
to process information, but it is a mere organ, a material
substance. There seems nothing more spiritual or
supernatural about it than there is about the stomach or
the lung. So how could the brain yield conscious
experiences that are so dissimilar to processes like
digestion and respiration? How could processes in the
brain give rise to vivid sensations and raw feelings, such
as the shooting pain of a leg cramp or the sublime
pleasure one takes from listening to musical
masterpieces? It seems difficult, if not impossible, for
science to explain it.THE PANPSYCHIST SOLUTION
One might claim that the mystery of consciousness arises
because we do not know enough about the brain yet. The
mystery should be resolved, one might contend, when
neuroscience makes sufficient progress. Yet critics find
such a projection too optimistic. Physical sciences, such
as physics, chemistry and brain science, are adept at
explaining natural phenomena in terms of the structure,
function and dynamics of material objects and properties.
But consciousness does not seem to be a matter of
structure, function or dynamics. Why do neural processes
have to be accompanied by specific conscious
experience? And why does consciousness exist in the
first place? Physical sciences seem unable to answerBELOW:
Conscious
toys? The idea
may not be as
fictional as it
first appearsthat the Moon kept following me to
ed safely. This is an example of animism,
f that inanimate objects, such as
mountains, are all alive.
Swiss pioneer of
sychology, collected
of child animism, such as
ore than one flower at the
t they would not feel lonely,
es from paths every now and then
d not have to constantly look at
s Piaget observed, animism is
nt in young children and tends to
y grow up.
d hypothesis to animism is
like animism,panpsychism does
ttribute life and full mental activity
cts, but, like animism, it attributes
o them. According to one version of
erything in the Universe – including
cks, clouds and even subatomic
scious because consciousness is a
edient of reality.
npsychism as an outrageous
xample, Karl Popper, an influential
trian-British philosopher, claimed
is “trivial and completely
misleading”.
e scientists and
e recently
t
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the greatest
ning ourSCIENCE