Panpsychism in Philosophy of Mind, Transcendent Philosophy and the Quran

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Ph.D. in Philosophy of Mind, Visiting Professor at Shahid Beheshti University

Abstract

Panpsychism in philosophy of mind is the view that mentality is fundamental and ubiquitous in the natural world. The view has a long and venerable history in philosophical traditions -both East and West- and has recently enjoyed a revival in analytic philosophy. Thus, in conjunction with the widely held assumption that fundamental things exist only at the micro-level, panpsychism entails that at least some kinds of micro-level entities have mentality, and that instances of those kinds are found in all things throughout the material universe. We can see something like this in Mulla Sadra's Transcendent Philosophy. Mulla Sadra claims that all things enjoy some kind of intelligence and understanding. On the other hand, many verses of the Holy Qur'an either explicitly or implicitly assert the presence of understanding and intelligence in all things. In this article, I will explain all three issues (Panpsychism, Mulla Sadra's view, and relevant verses of the Holy Qur'an), then I will make it clear that Mulla Sadra's view and Qur'anic statements are consistent with at least some versions of the Panpsychism.

Keywords

References

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