panpsychism

/pænˈsaɪˌkɪzəm/

Etymology

From pan- + psychism, a calque of German Panpsychismus (1874), from New Latin pampsychia coined by Francisco Patrizi in his 1591 Nova de Universis Philosophia, from Ancient Greek πᾰν- (păn-, “all”) + ψυχή (psukhḗ, “mind, life force, soul”) + -ία (-ía, “-ia: forming abstract nouns”). Cognate with Ancient Greek πάμψυχος (pámpsukhos, “in full life”) and Modern Greek παμψυχισμός (pampsychismós, “panpsychism”).

panpsychism means The belief that all matter is conscious in some form. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why this word is great

PANPSYCHISM — [Noun] The philosophical belief that all matter possesses some form of consciousness or mind-like quality. From pan- (Greek πᾶν, "all") + psychism (Greek ψυχή, "soul, mind"), calqued from German Panpsychismus (1874), itself derived from New Latin pampsychia (coined by Francisco Patrizi in 1591). Unlike "animism" (which reserves sentience for the living and sacred) or "dualism" (which exiles mind to a separate realm), panpsychism dissolves the boundary entirely, proposing that even the humblest stone hums with some dim awareness. It is the faint glow of a firefly in a jar, the slow creep of ivy seeking sunlight, the way a magnet trembles toward iron—each a whisper of intention in a universe where nothing is truly inert, only waiting to be heard.

noun

The belief that all matter is conscious in some form.“In very general terms, the thesis of panpsychism is that throughout nature there is mentality, that the mentality of which each of us is aware in our own thoughts and experiences is present in various forms in a wide range of natural bodies... Those that have minds (souls) are those whom we describe as seeing, hearing, feeling, and believing.”
Synonym of panexperientialism, the particular form of panpsychism that holds experience but not cognition as universal.
A particular form of panpsychism.“Whitehead devised such a conception, which to my mind definitely supersedes the panpsychisms of the history of metaphysics.”