Essay On Panpsychism

Rebecca Pettibone
Ms. Cook
ENG102
7 Oct, 2017
Breaking down panpsychism, and the patterns it holds can be a tricky task. Despite it being a newly developed theory, there is still a lot of information out there; however, panpsychism is the answer. The patterns developed in the world, and throughout the universe have a striking resemblance to each other. Panpsychism is the bridge between them. This may sound crazy, causing one to simply dismiss panpsychism, or the connections between patterns as mere coincidences. Whenever someone is dealing with metaphysics, it can be difficult to obtain a definitive answer; however, there is quite a bit of evidence to say that this theory heads in the right direction.
The focus here is the patterns between the human body, and the universe. How does panpsychism tie into this? Panpsychism at its most basic definition, is the belief that everything has a consciousness. From the smallest elements to the greatest nebulas. Referencing a photo found on the blog website Tumblr, the similarities can be seen between the human eye and a nebula, the birth of a cell and the death of a star, and lastly a brain cell and the map of the universe as we know it to be.

The first that it is crazy. On the surface panpsychism goes against common sense. As Goff stated in his research paper titled, Panpsychism, panpsychists often receive incredulous looks of disbelief when they bring up the idea that electrons have consciousness (Goff 6-7). The idea that panpsychism should be dismissed just because it seems to go against common sense is just unfair. There is a long history of scientific theories being ‘crazy.’ Take for example Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity. This was a preposterous idea that went against common sense, but through the years we have come to accept it. The same can be said for the idea that the earth is round, when it was previously thought to be