Panpsychism and Neutral Monism: How to Make Up One's Mind

Abstract

With reference to Chalmers's taxonomy of combination problems, I argue that while the subject combination problem reveals panpsychism as ultimately theoretically unmotivated, a rival neutral monist/panprotopsychist theory known as 'panqualityism' is much better placed to solve Chalmers's combination problems. In the final section I defend panqualityism against Chalmers's objection that it fails because of the possibility of 'awareness zombies'. I conclude that, in view of the advantages panpsychism and panqualityism share with respect to more mainstream theories of mind, panqualityism is our best hope for solving the problem of consciousness.