Dualism, the Causal Closure of the Physical, and Philip Goff’s Case for Panpsychism
Metaphysica January 24, 2024 D. Sepetyi
The article examines Philip Goff's panpsychist research program, which aims to explain consciousness's place in the physical world and the intrinsic nature of physical reality while avoiding the causal closure problem that challenges dualism. The author argues that dualism can adequately address the inductive no-gap objection based on causal closure, whereas panpsychism, as presented in Goff's book Galileo's Error, encounters similar difficulties and its ability to overcome them is questionable. The later hybrid cosmopsychism avoids the causal closure issue but relies on assumptions that are hardly intelligible.