Friday, July 23, 2021

The Epistemological Stupidity Of Panpsychism

Panpsychism is one of several attempts for some people to try to potentially deny substance dualism or the metaphysical uniqueness of consciousness by believing that literally every particle or unified body of matter (each individual object) is conscious, as if this would mean that consciousness is matter even if all matter is occupied by trillions of minds or more.  Depending on what someone means by panpsychism, the concept can be logically possible, but it is epistemological stupidity to actually believe it is true even if one distinguishes between the different types of panpsychism and only acknowledges that very specific versions are even possible in light of provable metaphysical facts.

No matter if panpsychism is true, not only is consciousness still metaphysically distinct from matter even though all matter would be conscious, but it would be impossible to ever even amount evidence for it with ordinary human experiences.  Matter other than that which constitutes the body of another person or non-human animal does not even have the same appearance of being animated by its own respective consciousness, and other human minds cannot even be known to exist no matter what fallacies are popular.  If the closest thing in human perception to one's own mind and body--other people--cannot be proven to truly have their own minds, what would the mere, limited evidence for all matter from miniscule particles to planets themselves being conscious in any way?

Very few people even understand how to prove that there is such a thing as an external universe of matter beyond their consciousness [1].  They take it for granted on the lunacy of unexamined philosophical faith, or assumptions, and then pretend like they are rational for just assuming it exists.  For those who at least try to reflect on the nature of consciousness and matter, there is hope that they can understand the truths from which it follows that a certain form of panpsychism is not even possible given the nature of immediate experience with one's mind.  Since I know my mind exists with absolute certainty because I do perceive, the kind of panpsychism that would entail there being one mind that imbues all matter contradicts my immediate, self-knowable introspective experiences.  My consciousness is confined to my body and my body is confined to one spatial location at a time.  My perceptions do not span the entire universe unless the universe only exists within my narrow range of sensory perceptions, and even then the external world is not permeated by my mind but is distinct from it.

This refutes one manifestation of panspychism, but what about one that does not pretend like pansychism involves a universal consciousness that inhabits all matter at once?  Then the epistemology of other minds becomes relevant.  Regarding other minds, appearances do not always have to match the reality they seem to latch onto.  The seeming presence of other minds never amounts to anything more than potentially misleading evidence that there are other conscious beings other than myself, and my own consciousness does not indwell all of the cosmos.  While at least the possible existence of other human and non-human animal minds has some evidence, in the case of this latter kind of panpsychism, there is not even any evidence of this being true!

There is no logical or scientific reason for anyone to treat panpsychism as anything more than an inherently unprovable possibility that even if true would not be true because it was impossible for anything else to be the case.  Logic and introspection reveal only that my own mind exists, and even the uncaused cause that exists by logical necessity cannot be proven to be a separate mind from mine--but there is much evidence that it is distinct from me and no evidence to the contrary!  The point is that when even other people might not have their own minds and the uncaused cause itself might be my own self, there is neither logical necessity nor experiential evidence in favor of panpsychism.  Substance dualism and one's own existence are true either way and cannot be rejected except out of stupidity.


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