Panpsychism’s problem of evil?

If panpsychism is true, consciousness pervades the cosmos and there exist many more conscious subjects than other worldviews contemplate. The article argues that panpsychism's explanation of human consciousness entails that various conscious subjects exist within human organisms. Since consciousness likely confers moral status, questions arise about the wellbeing of these inner subjects. Their lives may not be morally suitable for sophisticated centers of consciousness, potentially generating more suffering than other worldviews. This would compound the problem of evil, forcing a choice between panpsychism and theism.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract If panpsychism is true then consciousness pervades the cosmos, and there exist many more conscious subjects than other worldviews contemplate. Panpsychism’s explanatory story about how human material composition and complexity grounds human consciousness seems to entail that there exist, notably, various conscious subjects within human organisms. Given the plausibility of the thesis that consciousness confers moral status – a thesis many panpsychists endorse – questions thus arise about the wellbeing of these inner subjects. In this article I raise the possibility that the lives of our inner subjects may not be morally suitable to a sophisticated centre of consciousness of the sort that likely exists, for example, inside various of our brain areas. Panpsychism, indeed, seems on the face of it to generate a good deal more suffering, in this way, than other worldviews. If that is correct, panpsychists who would embrace theism, and theists who would embrace panpsychism – for example pantheists – should be given serious pause. If panpsychism positively compounds the problem of evil, then one may have to choose between panpsychism and theism.