The Evolution of Nagel's Panpsychism
Mind and Matter July 20, 2024 DOI: 10.53765/mm2024.9 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Proposes that the tension in Nagel's account between panpsychism and neutral monism can be resolved by viewing mental and physical properties as dispositions grounded in a psychophysically neutral domain. |
Abstract
In an influential article, Thomas Nagel (1979) was one of the first to address the doctrine of panpsychism after a long time of silence about it. The present paper focuses on Nagel's account in detail, and how it seems to oscillate between the apparently conflicting positions of panpsychism and neutral monism. To resolve the tension between them it is proposed to consider the mental and the physical as different dispositions, both grounded in a psychophysically neutral domain of nature.