CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Schreick, Forrest J.S. |
|---|---|
| Title | Combination and Confusion: A Defense of Constitutive Micropsychism |
| Summary | Constitutive micropsychism is the view that fundamental physical role-playing properties are realized by microsubjects who aggregate to constitute macrosubjects like us. This form of Russellian monism combines all the theoretical strengths of materialism and dualism while avoiding the traditional problems of both views. Instead, it faces the many forms of the seemingly intractable combination problem or the problems of explaining how microsubjects and their mental states could aggregate to produce novel subjects. This dissertation provides two solutions to the combination problem, both reject the traditionally popular view that introspection accurately represents the complete essential nature of mental states. My first solution is only available to the materialist constitutive micropsychist. I argue she can rebut two combination problems: the subject-summing and subject decomposition problems. However, while many panpsychists claim to be materialists, I show that the notion of materiality is deeply problematic. My second solution is consistent with any form of constitutive micropsychism. I argue for a restricted form of G.W. Leibniz’s confused ideas thesis, that introspection misrepresents the structure of mental states. I show how the thesis enables the constitutive micropsychist to rebut almost all major combination problems. |
| Supervisor | Griffin, Michael V. |
| Department | Philosophy PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/schreick_forrest.pdf |
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