The Moral Parody Argument Against Panpsychism

Philosophical Studies 179 (1):1821–1852 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

I exploit parallel considerations in the philosophy of mind and metaethics to argue that the reasoning employed in an important argument for panpsychism overgeneralizes to support an analogous position in metaethics: panmoralism. Next, I raise a number of problems for panmoralism and thereby build a case for taking the metaethical parallel to be a reductio ad absurdum of the argument for panpsychism. Finally, I contrast panmoralism with a position recently defended by Einar Duenger Bohn and argue that the two suffer from similar problems. I conclude by drawing some general lessons for panpsychism.

Similar books and articles

Panpsychism? Reply to commentators, with a celebration of Descartes.Galen Strawson - 2006 - In A. Freeman (ed.), Consciousness and its place in nature: does physicalism entail panpsychism? pp. 184–280.
Qualia domesticated.Roberto Casati - 2002 - In Amita Chatterjee (ed.), Perspectives on Consciousness. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
Panpsychism and Neutral Monism}: How to Make Up One}’s Mind.Sam Coleman - 2016 - In Godehard Brüntrup & Ludwig Jaskolla (eds.), Panpsychism: Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford University Press. pp. 249--282.
Panpsychism.Thomas Nagel - 1979 - In Mortal Questions. Cambridge University Press. pp. 181–95.
Panpsychism in the West.David Skrbina - 2005 - Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Panpsychism and the Depsychologization of Consciousness.Keith Frankish - 2021 - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 95 (1):51-70.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-08-22

Downloads
353 (#44,841)

6 months
45 (#66,043)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Zach Blaesi
University of Texas at Austin (PhD)

Citations of this work

Panpsychism.William E. Seager, Philip Goff & Sean Allen-Hermanson - 2022 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Grounding Physicalism and "Moorean" Connections.Alex Moran - 2023 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 1.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Naming and Necessity: Lectures Given to the Princeton University Philosophy Colloquium.Saul A. Kripke - 1980 - Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Edited by Darragh Byrne & Max Kölbel.
The meaning of 'meaning'.Hilary Putnam - 1975 - Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science 7:131-193.
Epiphenomenal qualia.Frank Jackson - 1982 - Philosophical Quarterly 32 (April):127-136.
Metaphysical Dependence: Grounding and Reduction.Gideon Rosen - 2010 - In Bob Hale & Aviv Hoffmann (eds.), Modality: Metaphysics, Logic, and Epistemology. Oxford University Press. pp. 109-135.

View all 94 references / Add more references