Skrbina, David. “Participation, Organization, and Mind: Toward a Participatory Worldview.” Ph.D. diss., University of Bath, 2001.

Abstract

The present modern worldview, the Mechanistic Worldview, has become inadequate to handle pressing concerns of society. It has outlived its usefulness, and hence a new worldview is called for. The author develops the Participatory Worldview as a promising alternative, and explores various themes of participatory philosophy throughout the history of Western Civilization. The concept of “participation” is fundamentally a mental phenomenon, and therefore a key aspect of the Participatory Worldview is the idea of “participatory mind.” In the Mechanistic Worldview mind is a mysterious entity, attributed only to humans and perhaps higher mammals. In the Participatory Worldview mind is a naturalistic, holistic, and universal phenomenon. Human mind is then seen as a particular manifestation of this universal nature. Philosophical systems in which mind is present in all things are considered versions of panpsychism, and hence the author argues for a system that he calls “participatory panpsychism.” His particular articulation of participatory panpsychism is based on ideas from chaos theory and nonlinear dynamics, and is called “hylonoism.” In support of his theory the author draws from an extensive historical analysis, both philosophical and scientific. He explores the notion of participation in its historical context, from its beginnings in Platonic philosophy through modern-day usages. The author also shows that panpsychism has deep intellectual roots, and he demonstrates that many notable philosophers and scientists either endorsed or were sympathetic to it. Significantly, these panpsychist views often coexist and correspond quite closely to various aspects of participatory philosophy. Human society is viewed as an important instance of a dynamic physical system exhibiting properties of mind. These properties, based on the idea of participatory exchange of matter and energy, are argued to be universal properties of physical systems. They provide an articulation of the universal presence of participatory mind. Therefore the author concludes that participation is the central ontological fact, and may be seen as the core of a new conception of nature and reality.