Panpsychism and the Emergence of Consciousness : A Proposal for a New Solution to the Mind-Body Problem

In this book Fabian Klinge develops a novel approach for explaining phenomenal consciousness. He defends a version of panpsychism, that is the theory, that (some of) the fundamental physical entities exhibit consciousness. However, in contrast to standard conceptions of the view, the author does not take human consciousness to be grounded in but emergent from the consciousness of elementary particles. In this form, he argues, panpsychism can overcome the doctrine’s Achilles' heel, the combination problem, without running into similarly severe problems—thus rendering panpsychism a strong contender to its problem-ridden rivals physicalism and dualism. In addition, the author provides a thorough analysis of the poorly studied concept of metaphysical emergence. He argues that, by refining some of the major contributions in the literature, emergence can be made intelligible enough to serve as a basis for a credible solution proposal to the mind-body problem. Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Introduction (Fabian Klinge)....Pages 1-3 Physicalism and Fundamentalism (Fabian Klinge)....Pages 5-21 The Case Against Physicalism (Fabian Klinge)....Pages 23-57 Understanding Emergence (Fabian Klinge)....Pages 59-104 Alternatives to Physicalism (Fabian Klinge)....Pages 105-142 Problems for Constitutive Russellian Panpsychism (Fabian Klinge)....Pages 143-180 Emergence in Panpsychism (Fabian Klinge)....Pages 181-215 Re-Evaluating the Antiphysicalist Options (Fabian Klinge)....Pages 217-225 Back Matter ....Pages 227-236