CHALMERS David ProtoConsciousness 5 Feb 2013

Australian  Natl Univ:

new book:  Constructing the world

panpsychism and protopsychism...

15 years ago  he was teaching at UC Santa Cruz... came here to CSLI.

Chandra Kumar, Joe Parvizi, Frank Heile here....

joke:  every philosopher at the end of his career either goes into panpsychism or goes into administration.

OR:  the Hegelian Argument for panpsychism...

Hegel believed in a world soul...

thesis, antithesis, synthesis  (but Hegel  despised that formulation;  attib to lesser minds like Fichte !)

thesis:  physicalism
antithesis:  dualism
synthesis: panpsychism...

or another way

thesis:  the conceivability argument for dualism
anithesis: the causal argument for...
synthesis: ...

PLAN for today:
1)  the causal and conceivability arguments
2) panpsychism
3) panprotopsychism
4) the combo problem

he himself does not believe in panpsychism  but here goes...

PANPSYCHISM:...

everything has a mind...  literal...

rocks, numbers, .....

quite an odd claim... but consider this ...

rather weaker form... some fundamental physical entitiies have consc exper...  perhaps  quarks, photons?

physicalism: consciousness is physical

dualism:  consc is nonphysical...

P = the complete microphysical truth  = physical truths

phenomenal truths...

A  an arbitrary phenomenal truth

the conceivability arugment

P and not Q  eg zombies

mary and black and white room...

Q is not deducible from P

structure /dynamics argument

P is structure/ dynamics and Q is not...

physicalist options...

type A materialism... denies the epistemological gap  premise 1...

the causal argument for physicalism...  (this is the antithesis)

1)  phenom properties are causally related to the physical... eg pain

2)  every physical event has a phys cause

3)  etc..

Dualist Options

epiphenomenalist...   denies caual relevance...

interactionism....  denies causal closure of the physical  (eg collapse of wave function)

do we have a standoff?

time for a hegelian synthesis...Macro exper... human phenomenal  and animal phenomenal

if panpsychism...is true, then   microexper  is also true...  perhaps  quarks  have  microphenomenal properties...

I wish i cud say what that is like.. but cannot do it...

constitutive panpsychims...

macroexp is built up by microexper...

grounded in, metaphys necessitated by...

he will explore consittutive type today... built up from units.

Russell on Matter

"but what put the fire in the equations..."

Russell physics reveals the relational structure of matter but not its intrinsic nature  (the fire!)

we need a word...

Quiddities...  intrinsic property of mass that plays the mass role...

Russellian panpsych says quiddities are microphenomenal properties... eg feeling pain  or seeing red...

eg  some microphen property M plays the mass role, the charge role

M = the instrinsic nature of mass

today... he presents  constitutive, Russellian panpsychism...

are quiddities physical?

cuz  this has the potential to evade both the conceivabiity and the causal argument...

structural and categorical zombies...

we don't know what the quiddities are?

constitutive Russellian   requires broad physicalism  (includes quiddities)

according to this...  macro is built out of micro

this just undergirds physics...

quiddities are broadly but not narrowly physical and are causally related to narrow events..

Hegelian Syntheiss

conceivabilty  argues that consc is NOT narrowly physical

causal arg establish that consciousness is broadly physical

synthesis...  panpsychism...

BUT  (topic 3)  protopsychism)  also succeeds...

Russeliian Monism...

panprotopsychism...

protominds...  put a bunch of protophenom props together and
 they will consist  microphen properties
cannot give u an example...

panproto...  they do not have microexper... but can be built up into it...

the mass role, the charge role...

mass role + charge role + quiddities  may constit consc...

topic 4:  the combo problem:  have both  panpsy and panprotopsyc  both on the table...

he organizes a whole conference on this.. on the great barrier reef...

combo problem... how do microexperiencee add up to macroexperience?

say PP = the physical and microphenomenal  (both)

Wm James....  no set of consc subjects necess. the existence of another consc subject
(take any 99, but does not mean  u have 100)

start with 

thesis: physicalism
antithesis dualism
synthesis panpsychism

Ken Taylor:   quiddities are ad hoc... (the stuff that is left out of physics, which is only relational)

his answer: we do NOT know the nature of quiddities....

does not require that quiddities be true but they are a solution to the mind/body problem;