Russellian panpsychism: Too good to be true?

Abstract

Russellian panpsychism puts basic conscious properties at the bottom level and then grounds lowestlevel physical entities in them. This paper offers arguments against the view. (1) The explanatory gap cuts both ways, making it as hard to get the physical out of consciousness as to get consciousness out of the physical. (2) Russellian panpsychism can't explain how basic conscious properties yield high-level consciousness. (3) Other non-physicalist views can evade the causal argument for physicalism at least as well as Russellian panpsychism. (4) Simplicity and beauty don't supply reasons for Russellian panpsychism. © 2015 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.