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Galen Strawson
Also known as: Strawson
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Critique of Panpsychism: Philosophical Coherence and Scientific ... thequran.love May 7, 2025 14 facts
claimGalen Strawson notes that many people's initial reaction to panpsychism is an 'incredulous stare,' as the idea that a photon or a spoon has any sort of experience seems absurd or crazy.
perspectiveGalen Strawson contends that humans lack sufficient knowledge of what matter is intrinsically, apart from its extrinsic behavior.
perspectiveGalen Strawson contends that many self-described physicalists make a fatal mistake by assuming they possess sufficient knowledge of matter to declare the mind as something fundamentally separate.
claimGalen Strawson argues that the analogy between life and consciousness is flawed because life, when defined in biological terms, is fully explainable by physics and chemistry as complicated order, whereas consciousness is experiential and not captured by structure alone.
perspectiveGalen Strawson argues that consciousness is causally effective because conscious decisions affect human actions, and these effects are executed via the physical aspect of a single psychophysical chain of causation.
claimGalen Strawson argues in his 2006 paper 'Realistic Monism: Why Physicalism Entails Panpsychism' that denying experiential reality is not true physicalism and that the emergence of experiential reality from non-experiential reality is 'magic'.
perspectiveGalen Strawson and Philip Goff argue that the seeming strangeness of panpsychism is not a decisive strike against it, noting that science has previously accepted counterintuitive ideas like relativity and quantum mechanics.
perspectiveGalen Strawson argues that true physicalism, defined as a physicalism that does not deny the reality of consciousness, necessitates panpsychism.
claimPhilip Goff and Galen Strawson advocate for a neo-Russellian monist view of consciousness, which is based on Bertrand Russell's insight that physics reveals the structure of matter but not its intrinsic character.
perspectiveGalen Strawson proposes that matter itself may possess an experiential aspect, meaning that experiential phenomena should be accepted as physical phenomena.
quoteStrawson stated: “the [ontological] emergence of the experiential from the wholly non-experiential… is magic, and therefore unacceptable.”
claimGalen Strawson argues that because individual experience is the most certain phenomenon in existence, consciousness must be incorporated into our fundamental ontology.
perspectiveGalen Strawson characterizes the theory that consciousness emerges from non-conscious matter as 'brute emergence' or 'magic,' which he considers an incoherent approach.
claimGalen Strawson and Philip Goff are prominent contemporary advocates of panpsychism who view the theory as the only viable way to take consciousness seriously without abandoning a monistic worldview.
Panpsychism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Jul 18, 2017 12 facts
referenceGalen Strawson authored 'Panpsychism? Replies to commentators and a celebration of Descartes', published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies in 2006.
claimIt is currently unclear whether Galen Strawson can conclusively rule out the panprotopsychist perspective on the nature of consciousness.
perspectiveGalen Strawson argues that 'radical emergence' is unintelligible, asserting that for any feature Y emerging from X, there must be something about X alone that is sufficient for Y to emerge.
claimThe term 'radical emergence' is used to express Thomas Nagel's notion of emergence, following the usage established by Galen Strawson in 2006.
claimThe 'Intrinsic Nature Argument' for panpsychism has historical roots in the works of Leibniz, Schopenhauer, Bertrand Russell (1927), and Alfred North Whitehead (1933 [1967]), and is supported by contemporary philosophers including T.L.S. Sprigge (1999), Galen Strawson (2003), and Philip Goff (2017).
claimGalen Strawson argues that a non-panpsychist reduction of consciousness is impossible.
perspectivePhilip Goff (2006, 2017) argues that panpsychists may be unable to provide a wholly intelligible explanation for how macro-level consciousness emerges from micro-level consciousness, which challenges Galen Strawson's claim that panpsychism avoids radical emergence.
perspectiveGalen Strawson defines 'intelligible emergence' as a relationship where the product of emergence and its producer can be characterized using a single set of conceptually homogeneous concepts.
claimGalen Strawson argues that the emergence of liquidity from individual molecules is intelligible because we can understand how molecules, governed by van der Waals molecular interaction laws, are constituted to slide past each other rather than bind in a tight lattice.
referenceFreeman (2006) edited a volume containing responses to Galen Strawson’s anti-emergence argument, which includes a counter-response from Strawson.
referenceGalen Strawson authored 'The Identity of the Categorical and the Dispositional', published in Analysis in 2008.
perspectiveGalen Strawson argues that to avoid the emergence of consciousness being a 'brute and inexplicable miracle,' one must assume that human and animal consciousness emerges from more basic forms of consciousness.
Panpsychism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 Edition) plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 9 facts
perspectiveGalen Strawson argues that it is difficult to use conceptually homogeneous concepts to bridge the gap between experiential (conscious) and non-experiential (non-conscious) phenomena, making the emergence of consciousness from non-consciousness difficult to render intelligible.
claimGalen Strawson argues that an emergent feature and the source from which it emerges must be capable of being described using a set of conceptually homogeneous notions.
claimThe Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that Galen Strawson does not conclusively rule out the panprotopsychist option regarding the nature of consciousness.
claimGalen Strawson cites the phenomenon of liquidity as an example of intelligible emergence, as it can be explained by the behavior of individual molecules interacting via van der Waals forces.
perspectiveGalen Strawson argues that intelligible emergence requires that the relationship between the product of emergence and its producer be characterized by a single set of conceptually homogeneous concepts.
quoteGalen Strawson defended an argument for the truth of panpsychism based on the untenability of radical emergence, arguing that 'Emergence can’t be brute'.
claimGalen Strawson introduced the term 'radical emergence' to describe Thomas Nagel's specific notion of emergence.
claimThe intrinsic nature argument for panpsychism is defended by philosophers including Michael Lockwood Sprigge (1999), Galen Strawson (2003), and Philip Goff (2017).
perspectiveGalen Strawson defines emergence as requiring a reason in the nature of things, rejecting the idea of 'brute' emergence where the emerging thing is unintelligible.
Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness cambridge.org Dec 20, 2023 9 facts
claimThomas Nagel and Galen Strawson argue that consciousness cannot be constituted by the physical due to the epistemic gap or related considerations.
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.
claimThomas Nagel and Galen Strawson argue that if consciousness emerges from the physical, it must occur through causal production or a dualist psychophysical law, but they reject this possibility by invoking the interaction problem, which posits that such causal relations are unintelligible and impossible.
claimGalen Strawson (2006b) defends and endorses the strong version of the argument from non-emergence.
claimGalen Strawson claims that the emergence of consciousness from the physical is an instance of 'brute emergence,' which he defines as emergence that is unintelligible in principle, even to God, because there is nothing about the physical, if understood as devoid of consciousness, that allows for the emergence of consciousness.
claimSusan Schneider and Galen Strawson argue that property dualism implies substance dualism.
perspectiveGalen Strawson endorses the dual-aspect monism version of panpsychism, which posits that fundamental physical entities are conscious or protoconscious because that is the intrinsic nature of their physical structure.
claimJoseph Levine and Galen Strawson have made considerations similar to David Chalmers regarding the inability of standard scientific methods to fully explain consciousness.
claimIn recent decades, dual-aspect monism has gained wider recognition as a distinct non-physicalist theory due to defenses by philosophers including David Chalmers (1995, 1996, 2003, 2013, 2016), William Seager (1995, 2010), Daniel Stoljar (2001), Galen Strawson (2006, 2016), and Philip Goff (2017).
Panpsychism - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 7 facts
claimDavid Chalmers, Annaka Harris, and Galen Strawson are proponents of panpsychism who utilize the reasoning that extrinsic physical properties must have corresponding intrinsic properties.
referenceGalen Strawson discusses the concept of 'the self' in his 1999 contribution to the book 'Models of the Self'.
perspectiveGalen Strawson describes panpsychism as a form of physicalism, and in his view, the only viable form.
claimPanpsychism has seen a recent resurgence in the philosophy of mind, initiated by Thomas Nagel's 1979 article "Panpsychism" and spurred by Galen Strawson's 2006 article "Realistic Monism: Why Physicalism Entails Panpsychism."
perspectiveGalen Strawson argues that "the experiential considered specifically as such" is the definition of what it means for something to be physical.
claimGalen Strawson refers to Bertrand Russell's panpsychism as "realistic physicalism."
perspectiveGalen Strawson believes that consciousness "just is" matter, comparing the relationship to how mass is energy.
Panpsychism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2015 Edition) plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 5 facts
referenceGalen Strawson authored 'The Self', published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies in 1997 and reprinted in the 1999 collection 'Models of the Self' edited by S. Gallagher and J. Shear.
quoteGalen Strawson argues for a revised conception of materialism, stating that "the experiential considered specifically as such—the portion of reality we have to do with when we consider experiences specifically and solely in respect of the experiential character they have for those who have them as they have them—that ‘just is’ physical."
claimGalen Strawson's general argument for panpsychism is a version of the intrinsic nature argument, which is akin to Russellian neutral monism, with the distinction that the substrate is explicitly taken to be experiential in nature rather than metaphysically neutral.
referenceGalen Strawson authored 'Consciousness and Its Place in Nature: Does Physicalism Entail Panpsychism?', edited by A. Freeman and published in 2006 by Imprint Academic.
perspectiveGalen Strawson suggests that only a revolutionary development in physics would allow consciousness to be discerned and described by science.
Hard problem of consciousness - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 4 facts
claimPhilosopher Galen Strawson criticized eliminative materialism and illusionism in an article titled "The Consciousness Deniers," published in the New York Review of Books.
perspectiveDavid Chalmers and Galen Strawson both state that panpsychism is, in a sense, a form of physicalism.
claimThomas Nagel, Galen Strawson, Philip Goff, and David Chalmers have revived interest in panpsychism and neutral monism in recent decades.
claimGalen Strawson describes illusionism as the "silliest claim ever made", stating that "every known religious belief is only a little less sensible than the belief that the grass is green."
Self-Consciousness - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Jul 13, 2017 4 facts
referenceGalen Strawson analyzed David Hume's views on personal identity in the 2011 book 'The Evident Connexion: Hume on Personal Identity'.
referenceGalen Strawson analyzed John Locke's views on personal identity, consciousness, and concernment in the 2011 book 'Locke on Personal Identity: Consciousness and Concernment'.
referenceGalen Strawson explored revisionary metaphysics regarding the self in the 2009 book 'Selves: An Essay in Revisionary Metaphysics'.
referenceGalen Strawson discussed the relationship between the self, the body, and experience in the 1999 article 'Self, Body, and Experience' published in the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society.
PANPSYCHISM (Philosophy of Mind Series) - Amazon.com amazon.com 3 facts
perspectiveThe author argues that Galen Strawson's terminology regarding physicalism is confusing because his definition allows for a person to be a 'physicalist' while simultaneously holding views such as neutral monism, dual-aspect monism, dualism, or idealism.
claimGalen Strawson defines physicalism as the belief that everything that concretely exists is wholly natural and that the claims of physics apply to everything that concretely exists.
quoteGalen Strawson stated in the book "Panpsychism": "I can see no good reason to accept [that] ... a plurality of subjects can’t possibly combine to form or generate a single subject."
Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 ... plato.stanford.edu Jun 18, 2004 2 facts
referenceGalen Strawson published 'Mental Reality' in 1994 through MIT Press, Bradford Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
claimNeutral monist property dualism posits that both conscious mental properties and physical properties are dependent upon and derivative from a more basic level of reality that is neither mental nor physical, as proposed by Bertrand Russell (1927) and Galen Strawson (1994).
Review of "Consciousness and its Place in Nature" - jstor jstor.org 2 facts
claimGalen Strawson's naturalistic panpsychism assumes that the world is composed of small elementary entities.
perspectiveGalen Strawson defends and explores a 'naturalistic' variety of panpsychism.
Panpsychism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 2 facts
claimA new group of young philosophers defending various forms of panpsychism has emerged, largely influenced by the work of Galen Strawson, with their views sampled in Skrbina (2009).
claimProminent explicit defenders of panpsychism in the contemporary era include Galen Strawson, David Griffin, Gregg Rosenberg, David Skrbina, and the late Timothy Sprigge.
Panpsychism: Conscious Rocks and Socks - Free Thinking Ministries freethinkingministries.com Nov 24, 2023 1 fact
claimGalen Strawson is a prominent advocate for the panpsychist views held by Philip Goff.
Quantum Approaches to Consciousness plato.stanford.edu Nov 30, 2004 1 fact
claimGalen Strawson (2003) proposed a 'real materialism' that utilizes a scheme closely related to dual-aspect thinking.
The Compatibility of Christianity with Panpsychism, Part 1 theologycommons.gcu.edu Sep 2, 2025 1 fact
referenceGalen Strawson authored 'The Subject of Experience', published by Oxford University Press in 2017.
(PDF) Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness - Academia.edu academia.edu 1 fact
referenceGalen Strawson argued that physicalism entails panpsychism in his 2006 article 'Realistic Materialism: Why Physicalism Entails Panpsychism'.