Page 69 - BBC Focus - August 2017

sometimes called ‘cosmopsychism’. According to
cosmopsychism, the consciousness of the entire
Universe, that is, the cosmic consciousness, rather
than the consciousness of subatomic particles, is a
fundamental feature of reality. This view is
remarkably similar to pantheism, which equates the
Universe with God. Einstein expressed sympathy
with pantheism when he said, “I believe in Spinoza’s
[pantheistic] God, who reveals himself in the
harmony of all that exists.”
According to cosmopsychism, our smooth,
continuous and homogeneous conscious experiences
are segments of smooth, continuous and
homogeneous conscious experiences of the whole
Universe, rather than aggregates of small conscious
experiences of subatomic particles. Smooth,
medium-sized paintings (human conscious
experiences) cannot be aggregates of distinct small
dots (mini conscious experiences) but they can be
segments of an equally smooth, large painting
(cosmic conscious experiences).
Cosmopsychists say that consciousness is
everywhere – not necessarily because subatomic
particles are conscious, but because the entire
Universe is irreducibly conscious. We may argue
about how something large (cosmic conscious
experiences) could be more fundamental than
something medium (human conscious experiences)
but this version of panpsychism does not face the
combination problem. Cosmopsychism, however,
perhaps stretches the imagination too far.
There is nothing more direct and certain than our
own conscious experiences. The 17th-Century
philosopher and scientist Rene Descartes famously
said, “I think, therefore I am”. We can doubt all sorts
of things around us but we cannot doubt the reality of
our own existence because the very act of thinking or
doubting proves the existence of our own
consciousness – something must be there to do the
The point that James tries to make against thinking or doubting. The mystery of consciousness
panpsychism is this: if panpsychism is true, then the therefore persists.
subatomic particles that constitute the brain are So what do I think of panpsychism as a solution to
conscious. However, it seems obvious that by the mystery of consciousness? On the one hand,
gathering their mini consciousnesses we cannot I think the theory has some gaps to fill. It is
obtain a full-scale human consciousness. The unclear what conscious experiences of subatomic
homogeneity of our conscious experiences seems to particles are, and how aggregates of them can yield
contradict the panpsychist thesis that our conscious
full-blown conscious experiences. Without
PHOTOS: GETTY X2, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY considered the greatest challenge for panpsychism. solution to the mystery. On the other hand, it is a
explaining these subatomic experiences fully,
experiences are aggregates of mini conscious
panpsychism cannot be considered a successful
experiences. The combination problem is widely
highly attractive theory. It tries to explain how the
THINK BIG
brain can yield consciousness by stipulating the
elegant thesis that the Universe is uniformly
Conscious experiences, which are smooth,
conscious. It seems to make more sense than its
continuous and homogeneous, are analogous to
smooth paintings rather than to Impressionist
alternative: that full-blown consciousness suddenly
paintings consisting of distinct dots of colour. This
came into existence through evolution in a tiny
observation leads us to a variant of panpsychism,
region of the purely material Universe.
69