Where Does Consciousness Come From?

Panpsychism – the idea that all matter, including rocks and particles, is conscious – is growing in popularity. Why? Because this theory may answer one of the biggest questions in science

- Prof Yujin Nagasawa

When I was small I often entertained the idea that the Moon was alive and observing me. On my way home from school, I enjoyed looking up into the sky, beleiving that the Moon kept following me to ensre that I arrived safely. This is an example of animism, which is the belief that inanimate objects, such as stones, trees and mountains, are all alive. Jean Piaget, the Swiss pioneer of developmental psychology, collected many examples of child animism, such as bringing home more than one flower at the same time so that they would not feel lonely, and moving stones from paths every now and then so that they would not have to constantly look at the same view. As Piaget observed, animism is commonly present in young children and tends to disappear as they grow up.

A closely related hypothesis to animism is panpsychism. Unlike animism, panpsychism does not necessarily attribute life and full mental activity to inanimate objects, but, like animism, it attributes consciousness to them. According to one version of panpsychism, everything in the Universe - including people, trees, rocks, clouds and even subatomic particles - is conscious because consciousness is a fundamental ingredient of reality.

Many regard panpsychism as an outrageous hypothesis. For example, Karl Popper, an influential 20th-Century Austrian-British philospher, claimed that panpsychism is "trivial and completely verbal, or grossly misleading".

However, some scientists and philosophers have recently come to think that panpsychism may offer a solution to one of the greatest mysteries concerning our existence.

CONSCIOUS MYSTERY