Panpsychism

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that some kind of consciousness is present not just in our human brains but throughout the universe, right down to cells or even electrons. This is panpsychism and its proponents argue it offers a compelling alternative to those who say we are nothing but matter, like machines, and to those who say we are both matter and something else we might call soul. It is a third way. Critics argue panpsychism is implausible, an example of how not to approach this problem, yet interest has been growing widely in recent decades partly for the idea itself and partly in the broader context of understanding how consciousness arises.

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Guests

• Tim Crane No other episodes
  Professor of Philosophy and Pro-Rector at the Central European University Director of Research, FWF Cluster of Excellence, Knowledge in Crisis
• Joanna Leidenhag No other episodes
  Associate Professor in Theology and Philosophy at the University of Leeds
• Philip Goff No other episodes
  Professor of Philosophy at Durham University

Reading list

• Consciousness and Its Place in Nature: Does Physicalism Entail Panpsychism?
  Anthony Freeman (ed.) (Imprint Academic, 2006)
• Galileo's Error: Foundations for A New Science of Consciousness
  Philip Goff (Pantheon, 2019) Google Books →
• Why? The Purpose of the Universe
  Philip Goff (Oxford University Press, 2023) Google Books →
• Unsnarling the World-Knot: Consciousness, Freedom and the Mind-Body Problem
  David Ray Griffin (Wipf & Stock, 2008) Google Books →
• Minding Creation: Theological Panpsychism and the Doctrine of Creation
  Joanna Leidenhag (Bloomsbury, 2021) Google Books →
• Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness
  Hedda Hassel Morch (Cambridge University Press, 2024)
• Mortal Questions
  Thomas Nagel (Cambridge University Press, 2012) Google Books →
• Panpsychism in the West
  David Skrbina (MIT Press, 2007) Google Books →
• Mind-Dust or Magic? Panpsychism versus Emergence
  James van Cleve (Philosophical Perspectives Vol. 4, Action Theory and Philosophy of Mind, Ridgeview Publishing Company, 1990)

Related episodes

• Imagination and Consciousness
  
  29 Jun, 2000 120 Epistemology
• Consciousness
  
  25 Nov, 1999 120 Epistemology
• Neuroscience in the 20th century
  
  24 Dec, 1998 610 Medicine and health
• The Mind/Body Problem
  
  13 Jan, 2005 120 Epistemology
• The Vacuum of Space
  
  30 Apr, 2009 530 Physics
• Materialism
  
  24 Apr, 2008 100 Philosophy
• The Brain
  
  8 May, 2008 610 Medicine and health
• Neuroscience
  
  13 Nov, 2008 610 Medicine and health
• The Universe’s Origins
  
  20 May, 1999 520 Astronomy
• The Brain and Consciousness
  
  19 Nov, 1998 150 Psychology

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Programme ID: m001vl96

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001vl96

Auto-category: 128 (Philosophy of Mind and Consciousness)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. According to panpsychists, some kind of consciousness is present, not just in our human brains, but throughout the universe, right down to cells or even electrons.