Tag Archives: bayle

Materialism and panpsychism (making things from Bayle’s Dictionary)

[Cross-posted from Modsquad.] In an earlier post I talked about some arguments in Bayle’s Dictionary. In notes to the article ‘Dicaearchus’ Bayle argues against the view that certain material things can think because of the way their parts are arranged. I suggested at the end of that post, rather hesitantly, that one might gloss the conclusion as ‘the …

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Materialism and panpsychism (Bayle and Toland edition)

[Cross-posted from Modsquad.] In thinking about early modern materialism, I’ve repeatedly come across the view that materialism implies panpsychism. This claim has some current resonance, in that Galen Strawson has been arguing for a version of it. And it has several early modern sources. Thomas Hobbes worried that his materialist account of perception would lead …

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