- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: MIT Press (10 Jun 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0262195224
- ISBN-13: 978-0262195225
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 16 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,905,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
"Panpsychism is a rarely named but nevertheless perennial and influential subcurrent in the history of Western philosophy. David Skrbina does us a crucial service by offering a wonderfully comprehensive historical overview of an idea whose time is, perhaps, about to come."--Freya Mathews, School of Philosophy, LaTrobe University, Australia
Review
"Panpsychism is a rarely named but nevertheless perennial and influential subcurrent in the history of Western philosophy. David Skrbina does us a crucial service by offering a wonderfully comprehensive historical overview of an idea whose time is, perhaps, about to come."--Freya Mathews, School of Philosophy, LaTrobe University, Australia " Panpsychism in the West provides a long overdue and much needed reexamination of this age-old doctrine, one which still retains some fascination for modern philosophy of mind. Skrbina's brisk, no-nonsense approach reveals the amazing influence panpsychism has had throughout the history of philosophy as a persistent counterweight to the rise of mechanistic science and scientistic philosophy. This book will be of immense use to students and of great interest to anyone who cares to see the full range of philosophical opinion as it has evolved over the centuries." William Seager , Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto at Scarborough "*Panpsychism in the West* provides a long overdue and much needed reexamination of this age-old doctrine, one which still retains some fascination for modern philosophy of mind. Skrbina's brisk, no-nonsense approach reveals the amazing influence panpsychism has had throughout the history of philosophy as a persistent counterweight to the rise of mechanistic science and scientistic philosophy. This book will be of immense use to students and of great interest to anyone who cares to see the full range of philosophical opinion as it has evolved over the centuries."--William Seager, Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto at Scarborough
--This text refers to the
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The nature of mind has been an enigma since the beginning of recorded history. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The nature of mind has been an enigma since the beginning of recorded history. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
David Skrbina gives a thorough history of panpsychism from the ancient greeks to the present day. Panpsychism is the philosophical idea that mind or mind-like qualities are ubiquitous throunghout, and present in the ultimate constituents of, the cosmos. He shows that panpsychism has been adopted or looked on sympathetically by a wide range of respected philosophers over the centuries, and thus merits serious consideration.
He also shows how there have been widely different interpretations of panpsychism. For example, some panpsychists hold that rocks are sentient, whereas Hartshorne denies that plants are sentient.
Anyone interested in panpsychism will find this a uniquely comprehensive reference for investigating the history and wide diversity of views on this subject.
He also shows how there have been widely different interpretations of panpsychism. For example, some panpsychists hold that rocks are sentient, whereas Hartshorne denies that plants are sentient.
Anyone interested in panpsychism will find this a uniquely comprehensive reference for investigating the history and wide diversity of views on this subject.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Clear, Challenging and Provocative
13 Feb 2006
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
An outstanding piece of work that shows that philosophy CAN be a lot more interesting than watching paint dry!
The deanimation of Nature was a great sleight of hand of the Enlightenment. There is progressively more evidence that the notion that the whole Universe is comprised of nothing but cleverly arranged inanimate objects is fundamentally flawed. This fine book does not present us with a definitive answer or solution: it is rather an examination of the concept that Mind exists in some form throughout the phenomenal world and beyond it. It emphasizes that this apparently heretical concept is a legitmate field of inquiry.
This book is well written and deserves a wide readership, particularly amongst those who have enjoyed the insights of Ken Wilber, Ervin Laszlo and Christian de Quincey. I wish that it would also be read by some of my friends and colleagues in the scientific community, but I fear that is a vain hope!
The deanimation of Nature was a great sleight of hand of the Enlightenment. There is progressively more evidence that the notion that the whole Universe is comprised of nothing but cleverly arranged inanimate objects is fundamentally flawed. This fine book does not present us with a definitive answer or solution: it is rather an examination of the concept that Mind exists in some form throughout the phenomenal world and beyond it. It emphasizes that this apparently heretical concept is a legitmate field of inquiry.
This book is well written and deserves a wide readership, particularly amongst those who have enjoyed the insights of Ken Wilber, Ervin Laszlo and Christian de Quincey. I wish that it would also be read by some of my friends and colleagues in the scientific community, but I fear that is a vain hope!
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Towards a Science of Consciousness - oops, Reset!
10 Dec 2005
Format:Hardcover
This book is an excellent introduction to Panpsychism. It gives lots of detailed history and clarifies the issues up to recent debates. I highly recommend it, especially for tough minded scientists and other true believers.
Science has had a hard time finding a focus for mind and awareness under its microscope. After a decade of having the spotlight of science on this subject area, there is still no agreement even on what consciousness is, and that is the self admission of the leaders in the field of consciousness studies.
It's my (lonely) view that science as now understood is not up to this task, is not itself well understood, and that a radical change of view and approach is needed to place mind in nature. My long standing openness to Panpsychism has recently led to incorperating it into an integrated view of nature. This view requires better "nontranscendental" science.
There are other recent voices who would approach this through quantum mechanics, emergence etc. etc. With the historical emphasis of this book, I dont think it had the scope for an in-depth coverage of what has been happening the past 25 years related to Panpsychism. My hope is that Skrbina is working on a sequel to clarify the current state of the art in addition to working on his own solutions in his research interests.
Science has had a hard time finding a focus for mind and awareness under its microscope. After a decade of having the spotlight of science on this subject area, there is still no agreement even on what consciousness is, and that is the self admission of the leaders in the field of consciousness studies.
It's my (lonely) view that science as now understood is not up to this task, is not itself well understood, and that a radical change of view and approach is needed to place mind in nature. My long standing openness to Panpsychism has recently led to incorperating it into an integrated view of nature. This view requires better "nontranscendental" science.
There are other recent voices who would approach this through quantum mechanics, emergence etc. etc. With the historical emphasis of this book, I dont think it had the scope for an in-depth coverage of what has been happening the past 25 years related to Panpsychism. My hope is that Skrbina is working on a sequel to clarify the current state of the art in addition to working on his own solutions in his research interests.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
questioning the nature of matter
8 Nov 2005
Format:Hardcover
We are scientistically smug about the nature of the "inanimate world." We KNOW all about matter/energy, and KNOW that it is just a matter of time before the natural sciences, the disciplines dealing with the inert world, can explain the up-to-now mysterious leap from neurobiology to awareness. Read this excellent book to find out that an alternative view has been available all along--for at least 2500 years in Western thought-- and that it is a credible, interesting, generative option that many major thinkers, old and new, have seriously promulgated.
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