Pampsiquismo

Abstract

The present translated article by Thomas Nagel was originally published by the author in Mortal Questions (1979), a work in which some of his major writings can be found. However, it was only after the publication of David Chalmers' The Conscious Mind in 1996, placing Panpsychism at the heart of the discussion surrounding the problem of consciousness, that Nagel's article seems to have gained notoriety. Since then, reading this text has become essential to examine Panpsychism and its premises, such as the notions of anti-reductionism and the anti-emergence of conscious mental phenomena.

However, for authors such as Philip Goff et al (2017), Thomas Nagel seems to advocate Panprotopsychism, the view that all basic physical entities have protopsychic properties, that is, properties that would not themselves be subjective, but when put together constitute subjective mental states. This reading of the article is consolidated by The View from Nowhere (1986), as the philosopher develops his theory of dual aspect monism, which underlies his Panprotopsychist thesis.

In the present translation, we have tried to preserve the fluid and elegant language that is so characteristic of Nagel's writing.