Panpsychism is often thought to be an obviously mistaken doctrine, because it is considered to be completely inconceivable how the elementary particles of physics could possibly have proto-mental properties. This paper points out that quantum theory implies that elementary particles are far more subtle and strange than most contemporary physicalist philosophers assume. The paper discusses Louis de Broglie’s and David Bohm’s famous “pilot wave” theory which under Bohm’s later interpretation suggests that, say, an electron is a particle guided by a field carrying active information, the latter of which can be seen as a primitive mind-like quality.
First published 2020 by Routledge
© 2020 Taylor & Francis
Cognitive neuroscience and philosophy