Patrizi, panpsychism, and the Presocratics
Intellectual History Review January 2, 2024 Vojtěch Hladký
Panpsychism, the idea that everything in the world is endowed with a soul, took varied forms even during historical periods when it flourished. The article focuses on Francesco Patrizi, who coined the term panpsychism to mean that everything is ensouled. Patrizi traced panpsychism back to the most ancient thinkers, and his conclusions generally agree with current scholarly assessments of early Greek philosophers. However, a closer comparison reveals significant differences: Patrizi used the concept to state that the world as a whole is ensouled, whereas early Greek philosophers understood it to mean that every thing in the world possesses a particular soul. Modern scholarship assumes a more historical account of ancient thought, characterized by gradual progress from simple, empirically based concepts to more complex metaphysical ones.