What is panpsychism, and does everything have a mind?

Panpsychism is the view that mind, or some mind-like quality, is a basic and widespread feature of the natural world. The word comes from the Greek pan (all) and psyche (soul or mind), and was coined by the Italian philosopher Francesco Patrizi in the sixteenth century. In contemporary debate it is generally understood as the claim that mentality is fundamental and ubiquitous, rather than the literal claim that everything has a mind. [1] [2]

Philosophers differ on how far the view extends. Some have argued that every object, every part of every object and every system of objects has some mind-like quality. Others are more restrictive, holding that only certain broad classes of things have mind, or that at least the smallest parts, such as atoms, do. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that a panpsychist need not hold that a rock has mental properties, only that the rock's fundamental parts do. [1] [2]

The word mind is also contested. Panpsychists typically treat the human mind as a highly refined instance of something more universal, and say that mind in lower animals, plants or rocks is far less sophisticated. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy adds that the word psyche is no longer usually read as a literal soul; it is now most often taken as mind or, in a secular sense, spirit. [1]

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes panpsychism as a meta-theory: it says that however mind is conceived, it applies in some degree to all things, but it does not by itself explain what mind is or how it relates to matter. More detail is needed to build a full theory of mind. It is at once a theory about mind and an ontology, a claim about what exists. [1]

The Stanford entry distinguishes two forms. Panexperientialism holds that conscious experience is fundamental and ubiquitous, where something is conscious if there is something it is like to be it. Pancognitivism holds that thought is fundamental and ubiquitous. Although a few thinkers defended pancognitivism historically, it is the experiential form that is taken seriously in contemporary analytic philosophy. The popular caricature that electrons have hopes and dreams therefore misdescribes the mainstream version, which proposes at most extremely basic experience at the level of particles. [2]

Proponents present panpsychism as a middle path between dualism and physicalism. Dualism, which treats mind and matter as different kinds of thing, leaves a disunified picture of nature and the difficulty of explaining how mind and brain interact. Physicalism is simple and unified but, arguably, cannot satisfactorily explain how human and animal consciousness emerges. Panpsychism aims to account for the human mind within a unified conception of nature. The Stanford entry also separates constitutive versions, where human consciousness is grounded in micro-level consciousness, from non-constitutive ones. [2]

Related ideas are sometimes confused with it, including animism, hylozoism, pantheism and panentheism. The APA Dictionary notes that some equate panpsychism with hylozoism, the view that natural objects have life, while others distinguish life from soul or sentience. [1] [3]