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 Panprotopsychism is a philosophical view about the nature of consciousness.

It is a middle position between:

• Physicalism (only physical matter exists)
• Panpsychism (everything has some form of consciousness)

🧠 Core Idea

Panprotopsychism says:

The fundamental building blocks of reality are not conscious,

but they have proto-conscious properties that can give rise to consciousness when arranged in the right way.

So:

• Electrons are not conscious
• Atoms are not conscious
• But the basic stuff of the universe contains properties that can combine to produce conscious experience

🔍 Why Propose It?

It’s mainly motivated by the Hard Problem of Consciousness, introduced by David Chalmers:

How does subjective experience arise from physical matter?

Panprotopsychism tries to avoid two extremes:

View	Problem
Physicalism	Hard to explain how experience arises from purely non-experiential matter
Panpsychism	Seems strange to say electrons are conscious

Panprotopsychism says:

• Fundamental reality has the potential for experience
• But only complex systems (like brains) actually become conscious

🧩 Difference from Panpsychism

Panpsychism	Panprotopsychism
Basic entities are conscious	Basic entities are not conscious
Consciousness is everywhere	Only proto-properties are everywhere
Combination problem: how do tiny experiences combine?	Avoids combination of tiny experiences

📚 Related Philosophers

• David Chalmers (sympathetic to versions of it)
• Bertrand Russell (inspired Russellian monism, often linked)
• Galen Strawson (defends panpsychism rather than panprotopsychism)

🧠 In Simple Terms

Think of it like this:

• Hydrogen and oxygen aren’t wet.
• But when combined correctly, they produce water — which is wet.

Similarly:

• Fundamental particles aren’t conscious.
• But arranged in brains, proto-properties produce experience.

If you’d like, I can also explain:

• How it connects to quantum mechanics
• Russellian monism
• Objections to it
• Whether it solves the Hard Problem
• How it compares to idealism

What direction are you interested in?