PANPSYCHISM. - It is the doctrine that attributes a soul to all things, including those of inorganic nature (πᾶν, all, ψυχή, soul), insofar as it is observed that every being presents a well-defined structure and shows in its action upon the surrounding world a precise and constant purposiveness.

Belonging to this conception are the earliest Greek philosophy (the Ionians) and in part also Stoic philosophy with the theory of the πᾶν τεχνικῶν, the motive principle of all things. Panpsychism returns in the philosophies of the Renaissance (v.) with the revival of the theory of the anima mundi, which is the act of all things and is in turn diversified into the individual particular souls of the various things: it is the first act of prime matter, according to Giordano Bruno (cf. De la causa, principio et Uno, ed. G. Gentile, Bari 1925, p. 213). In our time panpsychism was defended by E. Haeckel (v.), in order to give a foundation to his thesis of universal evolutionism.

Bibliography

BIBL.: general information in R. Eisler, Wörterbuch d. philos. Begriffe, II, 4th ed., Berlin 1929, pp. 372-74.

Cornelio Fabro

@incollection{ec9_panpsichismo, author = {Fabro, Cornelio}, title = {Panpsichismo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {682}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/panpsichismo} }

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