Free Will and Panpsychism
I argue that a minimal condition of free action, the capacity of an agent to act for a reason, is incompatible with conventional atomic constitutive panpsychism. If fundamental particulars are physical and mental simples, then fundamental particulars cannot possess complex mental representations, including representing an action as for a reason. Options for the panpsychist include Leibnizian Pan-agentialism, Spinozist Cosmopsychism, Cavendishian Infinitism, and a kind of strong emergentist panpsychism on which acting for a reason is strongly emergent with increased complexity even while phenomenal consciousness is only weakly emergent.
Authors
- Jeffrey J. Watson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0412-8653)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Southwest Philosophy Review
- Published
- 2025-01-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5840/swphilreview202541110
- Primary Topic
- Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00