TPF : PanProtoPsychism

[Gnomon]

I couldn't resist bringing a bit of spiritualism and talk of miracles to the panprotopsychism thread because I think the paradigm will verify some traditionally religious ideas, plus its entertaining to talk about the paranormal. — Enrique

That's what I was afraid of. So, couldn't resist some tongue-in-cheek repartee, in an effort to get us back on track with a philosophical appraisal of a topic that has long been shrouded in Occult Mysteries and Spiritualistic Fantasies. Some of those "traditional religious ideas" of Eastern & Western mysticism have been reinterpreted in terms of modern Science, resulting in a melange that is neither truly traditional, nor really scientific.

Although the terms "Panpsychism" and "Panprotopsychism" taken literally, agree with my Enformationism thesis, that all-is-mind, they are typically interpreted as entertaining enigmas. Yet, if you substitute the modern notion of mundane "Information" as Energy & Data, in place of the ancient concept of "Psyche" (Mind), as Soul or Spirit, you get a completely different worldview. The natural phenomena that pre-scientific thinkers labeled as paranormal or supernatural "Spirit" or "Soul" can now be interpreted in terms of normal & natural "Energy" and "Information". And that's what my thesis is all about : the essential element of Mind & Matter is mundane Information, which evolved into Consciousness only in the last few million years of our 14 billion year journey, and into Self-Consciousness in the last few thousand years.

However, that "radical" thesis does not ridicule or denigrate those early thinkers. For example, the geocentric Ptolemaic cosmology is no longer useful for the work of modern Astronomers, but we may still acknowledge that it was a work of genius, considering the limitations of ancient technology. Likewise, Panpsychism has a "long and venerable history in philosophical traditions of both East and West," But, today, in the light of Information Theory and Quantum Theory, what once seemed paranormal can now be viewed as natural & normal. But that's only possible if we give-up some of the "traditionally religious ideas", and unconventional New Age notions, in favor of a plausible re-interpretation of both the ancient paranormal & modern mechanical models of Mind and Qualia .

The Enformationism Thesis is not a doctrinal religious apologia, nor a technical scientific exposition, but a hypothetical philosophical presentation of a new way of looking at the "Mind-Body" problem and the "Hard Problem" of Consciousness. It is an attempt "to give a satisfactory account of the emergence of human and animal consciousness". Enformationism, "strange as it may sound on first hearing, promises a satisfying account of the human mind within a unified conception of nature". Yet, not in the form of Pan-spiritualism or Pan-materialism, but in the form of Pan-informationism.

Ironically, many posters on this forum interpret my neither-fish-nor-fowl terminology as confirmation of their own magical New Age beliefs, or as a denial of empirical reductive Science. In fact, it falls somewhere in-between those polarized extremes.

Panpsychism : And whilst physicalism offers a simple and unified vision of the world, this is arguably at the cost of being unable to give a satisfactory account of the emergence of human and animal consciousness. Panpsychism, strange as it may sound on first hearing, promises a satisfying account of the human mind within a unified conception of nature.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/panpsychism/

neither fish nor fowl : (idiomatic) Something or someone which is not easily categorized; something or someone that does not rightly belong or fit well in a given group or situation.