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Full Idea
There is the possibility that particles have senses like those of an animate being as a whole, …but from the fact that we perceive eggs turning into live fledglings, we may infer that sense can be generated from the insentient.
Gist of Idea
Particles may have sensation, but eggs turning into chicks suggests otherwise
Source
Lucretius (On the Nature of the Universe [c.60 BCE], II.914)
Book Ref
Lucretius: 'On the Nature of the Universe', ed/tr. Latham,Ronald [Penguin 1951], p.87
A Reaction
He gives other arguments for his view. The egg example is not a strong argument, but is precisely our puzzle of how consciousness can emerge from the process of evolution, and natural selection makes dualism look unlikely.
| 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] |