Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
way, but every oxygen atom is considered to have exactly the same response, the same
character everywhere throughout the universe.
This does not mean that atoms, or the protons, neutrons and electrons that constitute
them, are no more than totally isolated, independent, selfexisting entities interacting like
billiard balls in totally predictable ways. Modern physics shows us that nothing in the
universe exists in splendid isolation—everything depends for its very existence on its
relationships with everything else. When a hydrogen atom bonds with an oxygen atom,
aspects of the personalities of hydrogen and oxygen are brought out in the relation-
ship which are not present in oxygen and hydrogen alone. This particular combination,
known as the hydroxyl ion, is gaseous at ambient temperature, and is extremely good at
scrubbing pollutants out of the atmosphere. However, when
two
hydrogen atoms bond
with an oxygen atom, a totally different set of qualities spring forth in a new emergent
domain with all the extraordinary and life-giving properties of water with which we are
all so familiar. So atoms have freedom, but far less freedom than us. If we think of mat-
ter in this way, we can draw two important conclusions. Firstly, it no longer seems to be
such a stretch to imagine that the many little 'freedoms' in matter can produce the high
level of freedom that is so much a part of human consciousness. In the words of philo-
sopher J. McDaniel, “Our own subjective experiences are highly developed forms of
what there was in the beginning in sub-microscopic matter”, and “'Matter' and 'mind'
are simply names for different types of actual occasions of experience.” In the words of
philosopher Christian De Quincey, “Matter tingles with experience” and “Matter
feels
to its deepest roots.” Secondly, we can no longer treat matter with disrespect, because
it is, after all,
sentient
in some sense by virtue of having a creative agency and capacity
for experience that demands our ethical consideration. We realise the profound wisdom
in the etymological root of the word 'matter', which comes form the Latin for 'mother'
(
mater
), and 'matrix', or womb.
In Western philosophy, the idea that matter is sentient is sometimes referred to as
'panpsychism'. The differences between panpsychism and the new animism that we
considered earlier are not clearly defined, but one could tentatively say that panpsych-
ism is more concerned with exploring the cognitive or rational implications of the in-
sight that the world is, in Thomas Berry's words a “communion of subjects”, whereas
the new animism places more emphasis on working out how we should behave in rela-
tion to these subjects by rooting ourselves more explicitly in the perceptions of indigen-
ous peoples.
If this approach is correct, then, in contrast to the mainstream view, we can conceive
of matter as being inherently creative. Matter falls into certain patterns of relationship
improvisationally, much as an artist explores new domains of being and interaction.
For animists, matter and psyche are indissoluble, for the psyche of the world resides
