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panprotopsychism
Also known as: Panprotopsychists, panprotopsychist perspective, panprotopsychist, protopanpsychism
Facts (34)
Sources
Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness cambridge.org Dec 20, 2023 9 facts
claimThomas Nagel (1979) discusses but ultimately rejects the weak version of the argument from non-emergence, viewing the pan(proto)psychist conclusion as too implausible, despite being unable to identify the specific flaw in the argument.
claimDual-aspect monism implies panpsychism (the view that consciousness is everywhere) or panprotopsychism (the view that protoconsciousness is everywhere), meaning even non-living entities like fundamental particles possess some fundamental form of consciousness or protoconsciousness.
perspectivePanprotopsychism is considered to have an advantage over panpsychism regarding the 'incredulous stare' objection because attributing protoconsciousness to particles or the cosmos is perceived as more plausible than attributing full-blown consciousness.
claimGalen Strawson's argument regarding brute emergence supports panpsychism (in its strong version) or panprotopsychism (in its weak version), which are views that fundamental physical entities are conscious or protoconscious.
claimPanprotopsychists who regard the nature of the protophenomenal as unknown might argue that the epistemic gap to consciousness could be closable if that nature were known, though this appeal to ignorance is often considered unconvincing.
claimPanqualityism is a version of panprotopsychism that conceives of protophenomenal properties as unexperienced qualities, a view supported by Coleman (2012).
claimPanprotopsychism can be subdivided into different types based on their specific accounts of the nature of protophenomenal properties, with some versions regarding these properties as entirely unknown.
claimPanprotopsychists who define the nature of the protophenomenal, such as panqualityists, face the same epistemic gap problem as constitutive panpsychists.
claimThe argument that causal powers are mental or protomental leads to panpsychism or panprotopsychism.
Panpsychism - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 8 facts
perspectivePanprotopsychists believe that higher-order phenomenal properties, such as qualia, are logically entailed by protophenomenal properties.
claimIn versions of neutral monism where the fundamental constituents are both mental and physical, the philosophy may lead to panpsychism, panprotopsychism, or dual aspect theory.
claimAdherents of panprotopsychism believe that protophenomenal facts logically entail consciousness.
perspectiveDavid Chalmers argues that panprotopsychism faces difficulty with the combination problem, describing the view as 'ad hoc' and noting that it diminishes the parsimony that originally made the theory interesting.
claimPanprotopsychism posits that lower-level facts are sufficient to explain higher-order facts because the former logically entail the latter, similar to how H2O molecules logically entail facts about water.
claimDavid Bohm and Paavo Pylkkänen attempted to develop a theory of panprotopsychism inspired by David Chalmers' ideas regarding psychophysical laws.
claimPanprotopsychism is proposed as a solution to the combination problem, which is the challenge of explaining how the consciousness of microscopic physical entities combines to form the macroscopic consciousness of a whole brain.
claimPhilosopher Paavo Pylkkänen described David Bohm's view as a version of panprotopsychism.
Panpsychism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Jul 18, 2017 5 facts
claimPanprotopsychism is a position where proto-consciousness, rather than consciousness itself, is considered fundamental and ubiquitous.
claimIt is currently unclear whether Galen Strawson can conclusively rule out the panprotopsychist perspective on the nature of consciousness.
claimDaniel Stoljar (2010) argues that defining protophenomenal properties as properties that are not fundamental is too broad, because standard forms of physicalism would then be classified as forms of panprotopsychism.
referenceDefenses of protopanpsychism or related views have been published by Stoljar (2001), Holman (2008), Montero (2010), and Pereboom (2011, 2015).
claimPanprotopsychism is distinguished from analytic functionalism because the explanatory entailment advocated by the panprotopsychist does not hold solely in virtue of the kind of properties physical science reveals.
Panpsychism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 Edition) plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 4 facts
claimTom McClelland defended a form of panprotopsychism in 2013 that combines mysterianism with the reductive account of subjectivity favored by panqualityists.
claimThe Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that Galen Strawson does not conclusively rule out the panprotopsychist option regarding the nature of consciousness.
claimPanprotopsychists assert that proto-consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous property of the universe.
claimMichael Tye converted to panprotopsychism in 2021, arguing that a fundamental element of consciousness has always existed as a feature of micro-reality.
The Hard Problem of Consciousness | Springer Nature Link link.springer.com 4 facts
claimDavid Chalmers discussed the natural supervenience of the physical on the phenomenal (panprotopsychism) as a potential solution to the hard problem of consciousness.
claimPanprotopsychism suggests a gradual presence of consciousness associated with different kinds of entities.
claimPanprotopsychism may be less vulnerable to the subject combination problem than panpsychism, but it faces the additional challenge of explaining how micro-non-experiences constitute macroexperiences.
claimDavid Chalmers believes that a panpsychist or panprotopsychist approach to phenomenal composition is perhaps the only viable line of reasoning, though he acknowledges it is not clear how phenomenal composition could work as a form of constitutive composition.
David Chalmers - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 1 fact
claimDavid Chalmers speculates that all information-bearing systems may be conscious, leading him to consider the possibility of conscious thermostats and a form of panpsychism he terms "panprotopsychism."
Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 ... plato.stanford.edu Jun 18, 2004 1 fact
claimNeutral monism can be combined with panprotopsychism, a theory proposed by David Chalmers (1996) suggesting that proto-mental aspects of micro-constituents can combine to create full consciousness.
Hard problem of consciousness - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 1 fact
referenceDavid Chalmers authored the chapter 'Panpsychism and Panprotopsychism' in the book 'Panpsychism: Contemporary Perspectives', published by Oxford University Press in 2016.
Moving Forward on the Problem of Consciousness - David Chalmers consc.net 1 fact
claimPanprotopsychism is a philosophical view suggesting that a non-experiential property is ubiquitous, and that the instantiation of this property in complex systems constitutes experience.