Great talk. Love your new style with short clips of the interview in the start 👍,(reply>)," ‘Everything is conscious’: Panpsychism<br>162<br>Panpsychism is somewhat similar to property dualism"," which asserts<br>that one substance exists (physical substance)"," but contains two<br>properties (physical and non-physical or subjective conscious<br>properties). Panpsychism asserts that matter contains a form of<br>subjective consciousness. From this perspective"," it argues that<br>consciousness is an intrinsic property of the universe and it plays a<br>causal role. Advocates of panpsychism include professors David<br>Chalmers and Thomas Nagel. Since each component of matter<br>contains consciousness"," the brain’s consciousness is just an<br>accumulation of these components of consciousness. One form of<br>panpsychism states that all matter is conscious in the same way<br>humans are. The other form of panpsychism asserts that consciousness<br>contained in matter is in a basic state"," also known as<br>protoconsciousness.<br>There are a number of problems with panpsychism.<br>• Firstly"," there is an absence of evidence for the claim that<br>matter contains subjective consciousness. Protons","<br>electrons"," quarks and atoms do not exhibit any signs of<br>having subjective consciousness.234<br>• Secondly"," this approach fails to provide an adequate<br>metaphysical or physical explanation of how matter<br>contains consciousness. Where did the property of<br>consciousness come from? How does matter contain this<br>subjective conscious property? The panpsychist’s failure<br>to answer these questions undermines any metaphysical<br>and physical explanation.<br>• Thirdly"," there are no examples of consciousness existing<br>outside of the subjective experience of a living entity. For<br>instance"," what does pain mean without a self or an ‘I’?<br>What does being conscious of a thought mean without<br>someone who is thinking? These questions strongly<br>163<br>suggest that consciousness only makes sense with a<br>unified conscious being experiencing an array of<br>subjective states.<br>• Finally"," how can a unified conscious experience emerge<br>from many pieces of matter that all contain a form of<br>consciousness? How do individual pieces of matter that<br>contain subjective consciousness manage to add up to a<br>meaningful"," unified experience? If our conscious<br>experiences were just a result of many conscious elements<br>contained in the physical parts that make up the brain"," our<br>experience would be incoherent"," or less unified. Professor<br>Edward Feser comments on the unified meaning of a<br>single conscious experience. He explains that our<br>experiences are not just a summation of many different<br>conscious elements; our experiences have a unified feel.<br>He presents his case using the conscious experience of<br>reading a book:<br>“The experience has a coherent significance or meaning"," and<br>significance or meaning for a single subject of experience. You<br>are not only aware of the shape", texture, colors," etc. as separate<br>elements"," but are aware of them as a book; and it is you who<br>are aware of them"," rather than myriad neural events somehow<br>each being ‘aware’ of one particular aspect of the book.”<br>235<br>There is a lot of academic discussion around the approaches I<br>have summarised above. However"," the main intention was to briefly<br>introduce these approaches and bring to light some criticisms which<br>undermine their ability to explain subjective consciousness as<br>sufficiently as theism does."