PANPSYCHISM (Gr. 7rav, all; ,

See also:

• WRIT (O. Eng. gewrit, writ, from writan, to write)

writ, soul)  , a philosophical term applied to any theory of nature which recognizes the existence of a psychical element throughout the objective world . In such theories not only animals and plants but even the smallest particles of matter are regarded as having some rudimentary kind of sensation or " soul," which plays the same part in relation to their objective activities or modifications as the soul does in the case of human beings . Such theories are the modern scientific or semi-scientific counterparts of the primitive animism of savage races, and may be compared with the hylozoism of the Greek physicists . In modern times the chief exponents of panpsychist views are Thomas . Carlyle, Fechner and Paulsen: a similar idea lay at the root of the physical theories of the Stoics .