Event: Empirical Panpsychism
Date: Wednesday 6 December 2023
Time: 17:30
Venue: LC 118, University of Malta, Msida Campus
Speaker: Dr Ben Schermbrucker
Abstract
Panpsychism is the view that consciousness is a fundamental microphysical property of the universe and that it therefore exists everywhere. Although Panpsychism offers a captivating solution to the 'hard problem' of consciousness, it is frequently claimed that Panpsychism is unable in principle to generate evidence or predictions.
After exploring how this impasse owes to Panpsychism鈥檚 commitment to brute Physicalism, this talk will argue that Organismic Panpsychism (OP) can retain this commitment and yet be empirical in principle. OP, in turn, will be shown to have surprising implications for how we conceptualise the future trajectory of science and the universe itself.
Bionote
Ben Schermbrucker hails from Cape Town, South Africa, and holds a Master鈥檚 Degree in Philosophy from Central European University and a Doctorate in Education. He has taught English in South Korea, China, The Philippines and Gabon. He presently teaches at St. Edward's College, Malta.
The lectures will be based on the paper by Dr Schermbrucker which is available .
Further information is also available by contacting the Research Seminars Series Convenor, .
