The Life of the Thrice Sensitive, Rational and Wise Animate Matter: Cavendish’s Animism

A Vitalist Shoal in the Mechanist Tide: Art, Nature, and 17th-Century Science

“…28-30; and [89], p. 22), held that panpsychism follows "directly from Cavendish's application of the theory of blending" as applied to sensitive and rational matter (p. xxv). [90] notes that, for Cavendish, "every part of nature contains the same rational principle as humans", so that when she "wants to give an explicit account of the rational souls of humans, all she has to do is identify the rational soul with a person's rational animate matter" (pp. 636-637).…”

“…(In addition to [25], Part 2, ch. 15, p. 221, cited at [90], p. 637, see, e.g., the claim that "the Mind is Animate matter" at [55], Part 6, ch. 27, p. 296).…”

“…193). Scholarly consensus on how to understand these passages is a long way off, while [90] joins [91], p. 194 and [89], pp. 22-24 in going so far as to ascribe "consciousness" to all parts of nature, this is plausibly something Cavendish could have said herself if she had wanted to, and she also forbears from calling herself a panpsychist.…”