Panpsychism

John Heil (University of Washington), John Heil

IAS Fellow's Seminar  Professor John Heil (Washington University in St Louis) - Panpsychism

12th January 2015, 13:00 to 14:00, IAS Seminar Room, Cosin’s Hall, Palace Green

Contemporary arguments for panpsychism rest on a sea of assumptions. Many of these are shared by both proponents and opponents of panpsychism who are convinced that mental properties, or at any rate conscious mental properties, differ dramatically from physical properties, that, as Descartes put it, the mental–physical distinction is a real distinction and not merely a distinction in conception. Professor John Heil will discuss some of these background assumptions, suggest that they are optional, and offer replacements meant to open up a way of understanding how conscious qualities could turn out to be part of the natural world without recourse to panpsychism.

The aim of these seminars is to develop new thinking on the big issues that are of current concern/interest for the Fellows . Each Fellow is asked to present a core idea that informs their current work, or a problem that they are tackling, that could benefit from cross-disciplinary thinking. These seminars are informal and designed to encourage discussion.

Places are limited and any academic colleagues interested in attending a seminar should contact the Institute ([email protected]) in advance to reserve a place.