Patrizi, panpsychism, and the Presocratics

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.

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Abstract

ABSTRACT The main aim of the article is to show how panpsychism, that is, the idea the everything in the world is endowed with a soul, was varied even during the periods in the history of philosophy when it flourished. In the Renaissance, I focus on Francesco Patrizi: he coined the term, which originally meant that everything is ensouled. The article starts by an investigation of Patrizi’s attempt to trace panpsychism back to the most ancient thinkers. His conclusions are, in general, in agreement with current scholarly assessment of early Greek philosophers, whose views I attempt to reconstruct in a kind of survey. A closer comparison, however, shows significant differences between Patrizi’s and today’s account of the most ancient conception of panpsychism. While Patrizi uses the concept to state that the world as a whole is ensouled, early Greek philosophers understood it to mean that every thing in the world possesses a particular soul. From a broader perspective, it is clear that, while Patrizi builds on the notion of all-embracing ancient philosophy, modern scholarship assumes a more historical account of ancient thought characterised by a gradual progress from simple, more empirically based concepts, to more complex and metaphysical ones.