Does panpsychism entail anti-realism? The worm in the panpsychist apple
Religious Studies September 5, 2025 DOI: 10.1017/s0034412525100942 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that the realist assumption of observer-independent spatial structures in panpsychism underlies the subject combination problem and the inner-outer gap problem, and that abandoning it leads to anti-realism. |
Abstract
Abstract Panpsychists commonly hang onto the ‘realist’ assumption that our world with its structures has an observer-independent, often spatial element to it, even while they claim that those structures are realized by the experiences of subjects. I argue that this assumption is the ‘worm in the apple’ that lurks behind two of panpsychism’s major problems: the subject (de)combination problem and what I call the ‘inner-outer gap problem’. Abandoning this assumption sidesteps those problems, but commits panpsychism to anti-realism.