His Dark Materials: Panpsychism At Play

His Dark Materials: Panpsychism At Play

P.Goff

I’m a huge fan of Pullman’s work, but it was only recently that I discovered connections to my own work on the science of consciousness. Sir Philip and I hooked up on twitter, when he interjected into a philosophical discussion I was having on the nature of consciousness. We subsequently emailed, he read and kindly endorsed my book Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness, and we ended up having a public discussion in Oxford on the philosophy of consciousness (which you can view here or read the transcript here). In preparation for this discussion, I looked back at the His Dark Materials trilogy, and was blown away to discover a line from The Subtle Knife (the middle volume) that perfectly captures a view that has recently been causing waves in consciousness research: panpsychism. We have been discussing how Pullman draws inspiration from cutting-edge developments in science; in this case, he may have foreshadowed one.

I said earlier that this panpsychist view is foreshadowed in the middle volume of His Dark Materials. The scene in question is one in which the scientist Mary is talking to Dust particles, or “shadows” as she calls them. I won’t go into the strange method they’re using to communicate – you’ll have to read the book – but Mary asks the Dust particles:

“Are you what we would call ‘spirit’?”

…to which the particles reply:

“From what we are, spirit. From what we do, matter. Matter and spirit are one.”

If we replace ‘spirit’ with ‘consciousness’, this is pretty much the panpsychist position outlined above.

Pullman has gone on to describe panpsychism as a ‘new Copernican revolution’:

“This idea has the glorious simplicity of our first realisation that the earth goes around the sun, and not vice versa. Suddenly the universe appears in a new and much more revealing perspective.”

He’s clearly enthusiastic about the idea. But does he actually believe it might true? I put this to him in our discussion. He answered:

“Yeah. But I should add that I’m prepared to believe anything that will help me tell a story.”

Scientists, philosophers and novelists all have their story to tell.

His Dark Materials: Panpsychism At Play

P.Goff

Courtesy of the Daily Grail, here's an article by Steve Paulson at Nautilus entitled "Why Philip Pullman Is Obsessed with Panpsychism":
http://nautil.us/blog/why-philip-pullman...anpsychism