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Sotude M M. Combinatorial infusion: A defense of the idea of William Seager in the combination of panpsychism. Advances in Cognitive Sciences 2025; 26 (4) :21-32
URL: http://icssjournal.ir/article-1-1791-en.html

If it is not an exaggeration, the biggest problem for solving the problem of consciousness in panpsychism is the combination problem. William Seager, who, according to David Chalmers, was the first to use the term combination for the abovementioned problem, is one of the philosophers of mind who have continuously tried to answer this problem. This article intends to defend Seager’s idea against its flaws and present a more coherent form. The problem of combination by raising the question of how phenomenal states at the level of micro-physical affairs lead to the formation of macro-phenomenal states at the level of macro affairs posed a significant challenge to the perspective of panpsychism. William Seager tries to solve this problem by presenting combinatorial infusion. With the design of “large simple” models, which have the breadth of metaphysical explanation despite their lack of complexity, and by presenting two examples of “large simple” models in the form of classical physics (classical black hole) and quantum (quantum entanglement), He considers the combinatorial infusion as another example of the “large simple” model, which, in parallel with the other two, has the ability to explain the process of phenomenal consciousness. By proposing the form of non-necessary implication between combinatorial infusion and
the metaphysical existence of consciousness, Chalmers considers Seager’s answer to be among the non-combined answers or emergent panpsychism. In the following, this study will explain that despite Chalmers’ objection and the fact that his solution is inefficient in the combination problem, combinatorial infusion based on the problem of chemical composition still has the necessary coherence to explain phenomenal consciousness at the macro level.