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Full Idea
[Belief in thinking matter] leads to monstrous absurdities. …Every stock and stone would be a percipient and rational creature. …every single Atom of our bodies would be a distinct Animal, endued with self-consciousness and personal sensation of its own.
Gist of Idea
That all matter thinks is absurd, and would make each part of our bodies a distinct self-consciousness
Source
Richard Bentley (Matter and Motion Cannot Think [1692], p.14-15), quoted by Matthew Cobb - The Idea of the Brain 2
Book Ref
Cobb,Matthew: 'The Idea of the Brain' [Penguin 2020], p.45
A Reaction
Sounds correct, though presumably panpsychists don't think the flickers of consciousness in my toenails and hair constitute full-blown persons. I can't imagine what awareness is being claimed for my toenails.
| 22765 | Wisdom and thought are shared by all things [Empedocles] |
| 5711 | The earth is and always has been an insentient being [Lucretius] |
| 5712 | Particles may have sensation, but eggs turning into chicks suggests otherwise [Lucretius] |
| 23224 | That all matter thinks is absurd, and would make each part of our bodies a distinct self-consciousness [Bentley] |
| 12698 | Every body contains a kind of sense and appetite, or a soul [Leibniz] |
| 12760 | Something rather like souls (though not intelligent) could be found everywhere [Leibniz] |
| 5510 | Leibniz has a panpsychist view that physical points are spiritual [Leibniz, by Martin/Barresi] |
| 23230 | Nature contains a fundamental force of thought [Fichte] |
| 19257 | Whatever is First must be sentient [Peirce] |
| 2966 | Can phenomenal qualities exist unsensed? [Lockwood] |
| 2543 | Brains aren't made of anything special, suggesting panpsychism [McGinn] |
| 2424 | It is odd if experience is a very recent development [Chalmers] |