What is panpsychism? According to Denyse O'Leary in a fascinating article at mindmatters.ai, "Panpsychists argue that all of nature participates in some way in consciousness and humans are the most highly developed example." She notes that biochemist and evolutionary biologist James Shapiro has argued that even the simplest cells exhibit behavior that could be defined as "cognition." In other words, it could be said that in a way even simple cells can "think." Consequently--as O'Leary summaries Shapiro's argument--if even the simplest forms of life "can be shown to have cognitive processes, then it stands to reason that most (if not all) of the more complex life forms have them too." She goes on to summarize a number of recent articles that demonstrate "the growth of panpsychism as a movement in science."
The irony is that panpsychism is hardly a novel concept. In fact, it has its roots in ancient philosophy. Specifically, it was a tenet of the philosophical system known as neo-Platonism. What is neo-Platonism? According to Nancy R. Pearcey and Charles B. Thaxton:
Neo-Platonism had its roots in the third century when Plotinus blended various streams of Greek thought into a unified philosophy. Plotinus taught a form of animism or panpsychism--that everything is imbued with life or a soul. This philosophy viewed the universe as a self-creative being with a passive element (matter) and an active element (a rational World Soul) animating and directing natural processes. (The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy, p. 63).
Pearcey and Thaxton go on to note:
Neo-Platonism contained two somewhat distinct streams of thought. One stream can be traced to astronomy; it contained a strong Pythagorean element with a profound and even mystical respect for mathematics. The other stream can be traced in medicine and early chemistry; it focused on immanent, quasi-spiritual forces in nature--"active principles," as they were called. (The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy, p. 63).
Interestingly, both streams of neo-Platonism would appear in the work of scientists who were professed Christians. For example, the first stream, "with its near religious awe" (Pearey and Thaxton) of mathematics clearly influenced the ideas of Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543), who promulgated the heliocentric theory in cosmology. On the other hand, the influence of the second stream of neo-Platonism can be seen in the works of the early chemist Jean-Baptiste van Helmont (1579-1644), the discoverer of gas, and the philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). In Leibniz's philosophy, "souls or active principles were intimately united with matter in the basic elements of which the world is composed, which he called monads...a monad is a kind of living particle--a point related to other points but also a mind, capable of perceiving its environment" (Pearcey and Thaxton, The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy, pp. 84-85). In other words, Leibniz was essentially advocating panpsychism.
However, unlike Leibniz, today's advocates of panpsychism do not operate within a theistic framework. They argue, in effect, that consciousness, including human consciousness, exists because it is an essential aspect of the universe itself. In contrast, as O'Leary notes, "theists argue that only a mind outside the universe could create something like human consciousness." She suggests that "debates over the origin of life, intelligence, consciousness, and similar topics will increasingly be between panpsychists and and theists rather than materialists and theists." Only the future will tell.
Image of Plotinus from Wikimedia Commons