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Is the cosmos itself conscious, and could our minds be aspects of its vast, overarching consciousness?
In this ambitious and original study, Khai Wager defends cosmopsychism, the view that the universe as a whole is conscious and that individual minds like ours derive from this cosmic consciousness. Wager situates cosmopsychism within what he calls the landscape of fundamental consciousness, bringing it into productive dialogue with closely related views such as panpsychism, panqualityism, and perennialism. The result is a fresh perspective on one of philosophy's deepest puzzles: the nature and origin of consciousness.
The problem of phenomenal consciousness asks how subjective experience can emerge from non-conscious matter. Fundamental approaches reject the idea that consciousness arises from non-conscious matter, instead proposing that it is present at the most basic level of reality. Panpsychism—the most prominent such view—holds that all fundamental microphysical entities are conscious. This, however, leads to the combination problem: how do billions of micro-level minds combine to form distinct macro-level minds like ours? Cosmopsychism offers a radical alternative: rather than being formed from a combination of micro-level instances of consciousness, individual minds derive from a larger, cosmic-level consciousness. As a result, cosmopsychism sidesteps the combination problem entirely. However, a new and equally pressing challenge arises—the derivation problem: how do individual minds derive from the cosmic consciousness?
Through rigorous and insightful analysis, Wager argues that cosmopsychism can navigate these problems and offers a compelling alternative to both physicalism and panpsychism. As such, this first book-length treatment of cosmopsychism makes an illuminating contribution to debates about the nature of reality and our place within it.
Contents
1 Uncovering a Landscape of Fundamental Consciousness
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Core Tenets of the Present Study
1.3 A Map of the Landscape of Fundamental Consciousness
1.4 Fundamental Consciousness and Micropsychism: A Synonymy
1.5 Mapping the Uncharted Landscape: The Cosmopsychism Pathway
1.6 Exploring the Landscape: The Upcoming Chapters
1.7 Cosmopsychism and Enduring Currents of Human Thought
1.8 Conclusion
2 The Priority Cosmopsychism Blueprint
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Panpsychism and Priority Monism
2.3 The Priority Cosmopsychism Blueprint
2.4 Priority Cosmopsychism Versus Panpsychism
2.5 Possible Objections
2.6 Conclusion
3 Beyond Panpsychism and Cosmopsychism?: Panqualityism and Perennialism
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Panpsychism
3.3 Cosmopsychism
3.4 Perennialism
3.5 Panqualityism
3.6 Conclusion
4 The Subject Problem for Panpsychism and Cosmopsychism
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The Subject Combination Problem for Panpsychism
4.3 The Subject Derivation Problem for Cosmopsychism
4.4 Synchronous Perspectives Scenarios and The Subject-Constitution Principle
4.5 Arguments from Synchronous Perspectives Scenarios
4.6 The Binocular Model of Synchronous Perspectives
4.7 Alternative Responses
4.8 Conclusion
5 Problems of Phenomenal Quality and Structure
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The Quality Combination Problem
5.3 The Quality Derivation Problem
5.4 The Structure Combination Problem
5.5 The Structure Derivation Problem
5.6 Conclusion
6 An Account of Cosmopsychism
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Core Commitments
6.3 Motivations for Core Commitments
6.4 Internal Relations and Cosmopsychism
6.5 Possible Objections
6.6 Conclusion
7 Non-Constitutive Alternatives and the Broader Significance of Cosmopsychism
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Non-Constitutive Cosmopsychism: SED Cosmopsychism
7.3 Emergent Panpsychism
7.4 A Broader Significance of Cosmopsychism
7.5 Conclusion
