From quarks to cognition: in pursuit of a complete micropsychist theory of consciousness

Hibbert, Benjamin James

Abstract

Despite having received a recent resurgence of interest, Panpsychism remains a worldview afflicted by various explanatory shortfalls. Chiefly, the literature is yet to provide a ‘proper’ panpsychist theory of consciousness with the potential to explain precisely how we have transitioned from a myriad of rudimentary, entropic instantiations of phenomenality to unified and bounded macro-level conscious subjects replete with an awareness of their ontology. This work recognises this particular shortfall and attempts to remedy it by offering a ‘complete micropsychist theory of consciousness’ that is capable of overcoming the various iterations of the combination problem, and explaining how the sort of minimal phenomenality associated with bottom-level physical entities might be reconciled with the sort of cognitive phenomenology we undergo as higher-level subjects, by advancing a new take on the nature of what a phenomenal property is that might very well lead us to both reanalyse our understanding of the natural world and rethink our own nature.

Citation

Hibbert, B. J. (2022). From quarks to cognition: in pursuit of a complete micropsychist theory of consciousness. (Thesis). Keele University

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Publicly Available Date: May 30, 2023
• Award Date: 2022-06