Panpsychism

Abstract

The term “panpsychism” is derived from Francesco Patrizi’s neologism “pampsychia” created from the Greek words “pan,” that is, “all,” and “psyche,” which is “soul.” Patrizi describes by means of this term the central part of his work Nova de universis philosophia (1591). The panpsychic doctrine on the mind as the fundamental quality of all things in the universe has its origin, however, back in the pre-socratics and was also developed in ancient and Renaissance philosophies. Renaissance panpsychic doctrines are usually formulated as an opposition to Aristotelianism and are connected with the Platonic concept of the world soul animating the world; the stoic notion of pneuma, the spirit penetrating the universe; and the Empedoclean two animate and opposing forces of the world – attraction and repulsion. Although certain signs of panpsychism can be found in Marsilio Ficino’s thought, only Girolamo Cardano and Bernardino Telesio elaborate a genuine panpsychic philosophy. While Cardano follows the theories of the world soul and the hot spirit, Telesio considers all things in the world as sensing, and therefore his doctrine can be called pansensism. Panpsychism was held in three different forms at the end of the sixteenth century. Francesco Patrizi develops the Neoplatonic doctrine of the hierarchical universe where the soul occupies the central position. Giordano Bruno uses panpsychism in his cosmological ideas, and Tommaso Campanella follows both Telesio’s pansensualism and the platonic doctrine of the world soul and incorporates panpsychism into his metaphysics and epistemology.