Knowledge Tree
universe
Facts (46)
Sources
Panpsychism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 Edition) plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 10 facts
claimPanpsychists assert that consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous property of the universe.
quoteWilliam James argued that consciousness should be conceived in a way that avoids it appearing as a 'new nature' suddenly erupting into the universe.
claimPhilip Goff (2019) developed a form of cosmopsychism where the universe is a value-responding agent to explain the fine-tuning of physical laws for life.
claimThe minimal commitment of cosmopsychism is the assertion that the universe is conscious.
claimPriority monism is the philosophical view that the universe is the one and only fundamental thing.
claimJonathan Schaffer (2010) proposes "priority monism," the view that facts about small, fundamental particles are grounded in facts about large objects, such as the universe as a whole.
claimPanprotopsychists assert that proto-consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous property of the universe.
claimEach monad in Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's philosophy carries complete information about the entire universe within itself.
claimModern physical theories are framed in a wholly mathematico-nomic vocabulary, which excludes the qualitative concepts found in Aristotelian characterizations of the universe.
claimGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz proposed that the universe is composed of substances called monads, which are absolutely simple, exist independently of other things, and cannot interact with each other.
Panpsychism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Jul 18, 2017 9 facts
perspectivePriority monism, as proposed by Jonathan Schaffer (2010), is the view that facts about small objects are grounded in facts about large objects, with the universe being the only fundamental thing.
claimThe minimal commitment of cosmopsychism is that the universe is conscious, which is compatible with the view that the universe is a derivative entity grounded in facts about its parts.
claimGalileo Galilei declared that the book of the universe is written in the language of mathematics, which established mathematics as the language of physics.
claimCosmopsychists hold that the universe has some kind of experience, but they may refrain from attributing thought or agency to the universe, similar to how micropsychists hold that electrons have experience but not thought.
claimModern physics vocabulary excludes the qualitative concepts found in Aristotelian characterizations of the universe.
claimCosmopsychism is distinct from pantheism, which is the view that the universe is God.
quoteAristotle claimed that Thales believed "everything is full of gods," which Diogenes later interpreted as the belief that "the universe is alive and full of spirits."
claimEmpedocles argued that all qualities are explicated by ratios of the four elements, and the distribution of these eternal elements is controlled by 'love and strife' in a cyclically dynamic universe.
claimLeibnizian monads cannot interact with each other because they are absolutely simple, yet each monad contains complete information about the entire universe.
Panpsychism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2015 Edition) plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 7 facts
claimGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz viewed the universe as a mere aggregate, which stands in sharp contrast to the views of Baruch Spinoza.
claimSome versions of panpsychism conceptualize mind as a field-like entity or as something analogous to energy that is spread throughout the universe rather than being dependent on specific objects.
claimPanpsychism asserts that mind suffuses the universe, which contrasts with emergentism, which asserts that mind appears only at specific times and places under rare conditions.
accountDiogenes claimed that Thales believed the universe is alive and full of spirits, a view reported by Barnes (1982, pp. 96-7) and derived from Aristotle's claim that Thales thought everything is full of gods.
claimThe decoherence argument for consciousness collapses when applied to the universe as a whole because the universe cannot be disturbed by outside forces, implying the total universe exists in one complex entangled state.
claimPanpsychism is the philosophical doctrine that mind is a fundamental feature of the world which exists throughout the universe.
claimEach monad contains complete information about the entire universe.
Panpsychism - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 4 facts
perspectiveDavid Chalmers argues that extrinsic properties of physics must have corresponding intrinsic properties because otherwise the universe would be "a giant causal flux" with nothing for "causation to relate," which he considers a logical impossibility.
claimContinuism does not necessarily imply that the universe is a coherent subject with agency or intelligence, as it could be a mindless field of experience.
perspectiveMax Tegmark disagrees with the conclusion that consciousness is an intrinsic property of matter, arguing instead that the universe is not just describable by mathematics but is mathematics itself.
claimMax Tegmark asserts that the universe is, in a fundamental sense, made of nothing.
Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness cambridge.org Dec 20, 2023 3 facts
quotePhysicist Stephen Hawking wrote in 1988: “even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?”
claimObjections to cosmopsychism include the observation that the universe lacks the unified structure required for a unified mind and that fundamental particles appear more unified than the cosmos from a physical perspective.
claimCosmopsychism posits that the entire universe possesses fundamental and unified consciousness.
Theories and Methods of Consciousness biomedres.us Jan 29, 2024 2 facts
perspectiveDaniel Dennett (1991) argues that conscious awareness is an illusion and should not be treated as a distinct ontological substance of the world, universe, or multiverse.
claimPost-materialists argue that consciousness is nonlocal, external, and fundamental to the universe, while the brain acts as a receiver and facilitator of this distinct substance.
The Hard Problem of Consciousness | Springer Nature Link link.springer.com 2 facts
claimOver the three centuries following the scientific revolution, natural scientists developed a physicalist picture of the universe by explaining phenomena through deterministic natural laws, which encompassed life, human origins, and the human mind.
claimEinstein's relativity theory and quantum physics created an intolerably disunited picture of the universe by violating principles of scientific theory building such as parsimony and non-contradiction.
PANPSYCHISM (Philosophy of Mind Series) - Amazon.com amazon.com 2 facts
claimThe book being reviewed discusses 'quiddity,' which is defined as the necessary intrinsic nature of things in the universe.
claimThomas Nagel argued in 1979 that if reductionism and dualism fail, and a non-reductionist form of strong emergence cannot be made intelligible, then panpsychism—the thesis that mental being is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of the universe—might be a viable alternative.
David Chalmers Thinks the Hard Problem Is Really Hard scientificamerican.com Apr 10, 2017 1 fact
perspectiveDavid Chalmers believes there is a true story about why consciousness exists in the universe, likely involving a basic set of laws that can explain it.
Critique of Panpsychism: Philosophical Coherence and Scientific ... thequran.love May 7, 2025 1 fact
quoteAristotle suggested that "soul is mingled with everything in the whole universe."
The development of consciousness from an evolutionary perspective academia.edu 1 fact
referenceChapter 15 of the source text investigates the 'fine tuning problem,' which asks for the cause or reason the universe possesses the improbable coincidence of property values necessary for the emergence and evolution of complexity and conscious life.
Dualism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Winter 2016 Edition) plato.stanford.edu Aug 19, 2003 1 fact
claimRobins Collins (2011) claims that the appeal to energy conservation by opponents of interactionism is a red herring because conservation principles are not ubiquitous in physics, noting that energy is not conserved in general relativity, quantum theory, or the universe as a whole.
Episode 2: The Hard Problem of Consciousness – David Chalmers ... futurepointdigital.substack.com Jul 24, 2025 1 fact
claimDavid Chalmers suggests that consciousness might be a fundamental property of the universe, similar to space, time, or gravity.
Self, selfhood and understanding - infed.org infed.org 1 fact
claimThe Hindu approach to selfhood strives to achieve union with the immutable self, which is ultimately indistinguishable from deity and the totality of the universe, according to Marsella et al. (1985).
Quantum Theory of Consciousness - Scirp.org. scirp.org 1 fact
claimThe Quantum Theory of Consciousness (QTOC) aims to explain the large-scale, near-instantaneous synchrony of brainwaves (gamma, beta, and alpha) and their correlation with Schumann Resonances, as well as coherence between the brain, body, external objects, the Earth, the Sun, and the universe.