Jan 4, 2025 07:52 PM
Philip Goff’s Pan-Optimism
https://blog.apaonline.org/2025/01/03/ph...-optimism/
EXCERPTS: “My name is Philip Goff. I’m a philosopher who thinks consciousness pervades the universe and is a fundamental feature of it.” He argues that panpsychism is a “third way” between theism and atheism.
[...] Goff has a new book out, Why? The Purpose of the Universe (2023). This is about as ambitious a title as you could conjure up. It tells the reader that We—the community of readers—still collectively yearn for purpose. It attempts to provide a complete and unified answer to the question posed in the book’s title. That answer is panpsychism.
[...] Goff tells us: Academic philosophers tend to talk to themselves. They write complicated, jargon-filled books that are inaccessible to anyone who doesn’t have a PhD in philosophy. I’ve written one of them myself, so I should know. I wanted this book to be both a significant contribution to philosophy and accessible to a broader audience... (MORE - missing details)
The Power of Ahimsic Communication
https://blog.apaonline.org/2024/12/30/th...unication/
EXCERPT: Let’s begin by exploring this hypothesis [Fundamental Hypothesis of Gandhian Morality]. To clarify, I regard it as a hypothesis rather than an axiom or a conjecture, since for Gandhi it was more than a starting point or guess. Gandhi’s law of truth is closer to an axiom in his philosophy, whereas the FHGM is a hypothesis in the Gandhian experimental spirit: to be accepted, it must be confirmed, and to be confirmed it must be tested by reason and experiment. Ultimately, Gandhi believed the hypothesis is confirmed.
The FHGM is a synthesis of two perspectives on morality: (1) the thesis that the ends justify the means (consequentialism) and (2) the antithesis that only the means matter, never the ends (a strict deontology). These two perspectives correspond respectively to two nonviolentist camps: (a) the thesis that nonviolence is justified purely on the basis of strategy (strategic nonviolence) and (b) the antithesis that nonviolence is justified purely on the basis of principle (principled nonviolence). The FHGM maintains that means and ends are inseparable, which corresponds to a third camp (integral nonviolence)—the thesis that nonviolence is justified on the basis of both strategy and principle, which are inseparable... (MORE - missing details)
https://blog.apaonline.org/2025/01/03/ph...-optimism/
EXCERPTS: “My name is Philip Goff. I’m a philosopher who thinks consciousness pervades the universe and is a fundamental feature of it.” He argues that panpsychism is a “third way” between theism and atheism.
[...] Goff has a new book out, Why? The Purpose of the Universe (2023). This is about as ambitious a title as you could conjure up. It tells the reader that We—the community of readers—still collectively yearn for purpose. It attempts to provide a complete and unified answer to the question posed in the book’s title. That answer is panpsychism.
[...] Goff tells us: Academic philosophers tend to talk to themselves. They write complicated, jargon-filled books that are inaccessible to anyone who doesn’t have a PhD in philosophy. I’ve written one of them myself, so I should know. I wanted this book to be both a significant contribution to philosophy and accessible to a broader audience... (MORE - missing details)
The Power of Ahimsic Communication
https://blog.apaonline.org/2024/12/30/th...unication/
EXCERPT: Let’s begin by exploring this hypothesis [Fundamental Hypothesis of Gandhian Morality]. To clarify, I regard it as a hypothesis rather than an axiom or a conjecture, since for Gandhi it was more than a starting point or guess. Gandhi’s law of truth is closer to an axiom in his philosophy, whereas the FHGM is a hypothesis in the Gandhian experimental spirit: to be accepted, it must be confirmed, and to be confirmed it must be tested by reason and experiment. Ultimately, Gandhi believed the hypothesis is confirmed.
The FHGM is a synthesis of two perspectives on morality: (1) the thesis that the ends justify the means (consequentialism) and (2) the antithesis that only the means matter, never the ends (a strict deontology). These two perspectives correspond respectively to two nonviolentist camps: (a) the thesis that nonviolence is justified purely on the basis of strategy (strategic nonviolence) and (b) the antithesis that nonviolence is justified purely on the basis of principle (principled nonviolence). The FHGM maintains that means and ends are inseparable, which corresponds to a third camp (integral nonviolence)—the thesis that nonviolence is justified on the basis of both strategy and principle, which are inseparable... (MORE - missing details)