Papers by Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes
Frontiers in Psychology
The essential proposal of this text is that psychedelic-induced metaphysical experiences should b... more The essential proposal of this text is that psychedelic-induced metaphysical experiences should be integrated and evaluated with recourse to metaphysics. It will be argued that there is a potential extra benefit to patients in psychedelic-assisted therapy if they are provided with an optional, additional, and intelligible schema and discussion of metaphysical options at the integrative phase of the therapy. This schema (the “Metaphysics Matrix”) and a new Metaphysics Matrix Questionnaire (“MMQ”) stemming therefrom will be presented, the latter of which can also be used as an alternative or additional tool for quantitative measurement of psychedelic experience in trials. Metaphysics is not mysticism, despite some overlap; and certainly not all psychedelic experience is metaphysical or mystical—all three terms will be defined and contrasted. Thereafter psychedelic therapy will be presented and analysed in order to reveal the missing place for metaphysics. Metaphysics, with epistemolog...
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Frontiers in Psychology, 2023
The essential proposal of this text is that psychedelic-induced metaphysical experiences should b... more The essential proposal of this text is that psychedelic-induced metaphysical experiences should be integrated and evaluated with recourse to metaphysics. It will be argued that there is a potential extra benefit to patients in psychedelic-assisted therapy if they are provided with an optional, additional, and intelligible schema and discussion of metaphysical options at the integrative phase of the therapy. This schema (the “Metaphysics Matrix”) and a new Metaphysics Matrix Questionnaire (“MMQ”) stemming therefrom will be presented, the latter of which can also be used as an alternative or additional tool for quantitative measurement of psychedelic experience in trials. Metaphysics is not mysticism, despite some overlap; and certainly not all psychedelic experience is metaphysical or mystical—all three terms will be defined and contrasted. Thereafter psychedelic therapy will be presented and analysed in order to reveal the missing place for metaphysics. Metaphysics, with epistemology (theory of knowledge) and axiology (ethics and aesthetics), is a defining branch of Philosophy. Metaphysics, in contrast to mysticism, is considered to be based on argument rather than pure revelation. Thus, in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy one sees here the potential bridge between reason-based philosophy and practical therapy
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Interdisciplinary Science Reviews
Indigenous psychedelic uses have long been imbricated with colonialism and its afterlives. Amidst... more Indigenous psychedelic uses have long been imbricated with colonialism and its afterlives. Amidst tensions from accelerating investor interest in psychedelics and calls to decolonize research and practices, we argue that the study of psychedelics is troubled by dualisms used in both colonial and decolonial thought: subject and object, self and other, culture and nature, synthetic and natural, the colonizer and the indigenous, the literal and the metaphorical. Feminist and decolonial theory as well as a discussion of metaphor support our argument that the study of psychedelics often lacks critical engagement with these dualisms. A narrow understanding of coloniality hinders far-reaching critiques of contemporary capitalism, including progressive colonization of the life-world and commodification of psychedelic experiences. Fears that decolonization is becoming just a ‘metaphor’ implicitly reaffirm the conceptual power dynamics of colonization. In research on psychedelics, decolonization as a critical metaphor enables reassessing problematic distinctions that shape thinking, material realities, experiences.
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Heresy and Borders in the Twentieth Century, 2021
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Philosophy and Psychedelics
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Conspectus of part of John R. Smythies' Analysis of Perception (1956). It presents a summary ... more Conspectus of part of John R. Smythies' Analysis of Perception (1956). It presents a summary of his ideas on phenomenal space – the space of one’s imagination, dreams, psychedelic experiences, somatic sensations, visions, hynagogia, etc. – and its relation to physical space
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Master's Dissertation (Awarded Distinction from Warwick University – assessed by Professo... more Master's Dissertation (Awarded Distinction from Warwick University – assessed by Professors Stephen Houlgate and Christine Battersby, 2002)
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Through Alfred North Whitehead’s metaphysics, the Philosophy of Organism, it will be argued that ... more Through Alfred North Whitehead’s metaphysics, the Philosophy of Organism, it will be argued that psychedelic experience is a vertical, lateral and temporal integration of sentience. This paper was published in the Psychedelic Press Journal, issue XX (February 2017), pp. 47–65.
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The thesis that follows proffers a solution to the mind-matter problem, the problem as to how min... more The thesis that follows proffers a solution to the mind-matter problem, the problem as to how mind and matter relate. The proposed solution herein is a variant of panpsychism – the theory that all (pan) has minds (psyche) – that we name pansentient monism. By defining the suffix 'psyche' of panpsychism, i.e. by analysing what 'mind' is (Chapter 1), we thereby initiate the effacement of the distinction between mind and matter, and thus advance a monism. We thereafter critically examine the prevalent view, antithetical to a pansentient monism, that mind is not identical to matter but emergent therefrom (Chapter 2). This anti-emergentist critique acts also as a fortification of the Genetic Argument for panpsychism: if mind is not emergent (nor distinct) from matter, mind must always have existed with matter. But what is 'matter'? Chapter 3 investigates what we understand by 'matter', or 'the physical', and exposes it as a highly deficient concept and percept that in concreto points to its identity with that denoted by 'mind'. This also acts as a fortification of the Abstraction Argument for panpsychism, employing a new taxonomy of physicalism and a new taxonomy of the varieties of abstraction. Thus do we reach a monism that is a parsimonious psycho-physical identity theory. But here we face what can be called The Identity Problem for Panpsychism: if our panpsychism is a psycho-physical identity theory, how can it respond to the powerful objections that beset the identity theory of the twentieth century? In Chapter 4 it will be argued that, like emergentism, this psycho-neural identity theory presupposed a deficient concept of 'matter', down to which mind was reduced away, let alone identified. But to identify down phenomena to what is actually an abstraction is to commit failure of explanation. When the theory is amended accordingly, we move from a psycho-neural identity theory to a genuine psycho-physical identity theory that as such can overcome the aforementioned identity problem. Furthermore, as Chapter 5 clarifies, our pansentient monism has, in addition to parsimony, the explanatory power to resolve the problem of mental causation that afflicts both the reductive physicalism of psycho-neural identity theory and the non-reductive physicalism of emergentism, by genuinely identifying physical and mental causation. Jaegwon Kim considers the place of consciousness in a physical world and the nature of mental causation to be the two key components of the mind-matter problem. Through the critical analysis of our prosaic understanding of mind and matter in this thesis, which incorporates the thought of both classical and contemporary thinkers through a novel fusion, it is hoped that both components are addressed and redressed. That is to say that I present this pansentient monism as a plausible, parsimonious, explanatory, and thus, I think, powerful position towards this ever-perplexing mind-matter mystery. [This thesis was passed in January 2019 with viva examination from Galen Strawson and Joel Krueger. Supervised by Tom Roberts, Michael Hauskeller, and John Dupré.]
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3:am Magazine, 2017
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This public article presents three arguments for the plausibility of panpsychism: the view that s... more This public article presents three arguments for the plausibility of panpsychism: the view that sentience is a fundamental and ubiquitous element of actuality. Thereafter is presented a brief exploration of why panpsychism has been spurned.
The article was commissioned by High Existence.
– Introduction
– 1. The Genetic Argument
– 2. The Abstraction Argument
– 3. The Inferential Argument
– Why Panpsychism is Spurned
– End Remarks
Originally published 15 January 2018: http://highexistence.com/panpsychism-3-reasons-why-our-world-brimming-sentience/ [note different subtitle]
Accompanying audio version: https://youtu.be/B7B_RmZQp5Q
©Peter Sjöstedt-H 2018
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A mildly chronological overview of the philosophers who may have been inspired by the use of psyc... more A mildly chronological overview of the philosophers who may have been inspired by the use of psychoactive chemicals, inc. Plato, de Quincey, Davy, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, James, Bergson, Benjamin, Jünger, Paz, Marcuse, Sartre, Foucault; and a mention of the Outsight project.
This article was based on a talk given for the University of Exeter Philosophy Society (video: https://youtu.be/X2eY4n37FC0) and at the ICPR2016 conference. It was published in the popular HighExistence magazine on August 2nd 2016, and has received over 90 000 social media shares (http://highexistence.com/hidden-psychedelic-influence-philosophy-plato-nietzsche-psychonauts-thoughts).
Reference:
Sjöstedt-H, P. 'The Psychedelic Influence on Philosophy', HighExistence.com (2nd-08-2016)
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'Peter Sjöstedt-H introduces Whitehead’s organic awareness of reality.'
Philosophy Now, no. 114,... more 'Peter Sjöstedt-H introduces Whitehead’s organic awareness of reality.'
Philosophy Now, no. 114, June/July 2016, pp. 22–23
I was asked by Philosophy Now magazine whether I'd like to contribute an article on speculative realism. I offered instead this article on A. N. Whitehead's organic realism. Consequently the overview of Whitehead's philosophy emphasises the realist aspects—more theological aspects are avoided. Peer-reviewed.
www.philosophynow.org/issues/114/The_Philosophy_of_Organism
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Papers by Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes
Peter Sjöstedt-H interview for 3:am Magazine
Interview by Richard Marshall and Lindsay Jordan.
https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/noumenaut-psychedelics-philosophy
May 2017
The article was commissioned by High Existence.
– Introduction
– 1. The Genetic Argument
– 2. The Abstraction Argument
– 3. The Inferential Argument
– Why Panpsychism is Spurned
– End Remarks
Originally published 15 January 2018: http://highexistence.com/panpsychism-3-reasons-why-our-world-brimming-sentience/ [note different subtitle]
Accompanying audio version: https://youtu.be/B7B_RmZQp5Q
©Peter Sjöstedt-H 2018
First published in the Psychedelic Press Journal, vol. XII, then as chapter VI in Noumenautics, and thereafter as an online article on HighExistence.com. Respectively:
https://psychedelicpress.co.uk/products/psychedelic-press-uk-journal-2015-volume-iv?mc_cid=bb137e4065&mc_eid=385faf533c
https://psychedelicpress.co.uk/collections/display-titles/products/noumenautics
http://highexistence.com/antichrist-psychonaut-nietzsche-psychoactive-drugs/
This article was based on a talk given for the University of Exeter Philosophy Society (video: https://youtu.be/X2eY4n37FC0) and at the ICPR2016 conference. It was published in the popular HighExistence magazine on August 2nd 2016, and has received over 90 000 social media shares (http://highexistence.com/hidden-psychedelic-influence-philosophy-plato-nietzsche-psychonauts-thoughts).
Reference:
Sjöstedt-H, P. 'The Psychedelic Influence on Philosophy', HighExistence.com (2nd-08-2016)
Philosophy Now, no. 114, June/July 2016, pp. 22–23
I was asked by Philosophy Now magazine whether I'd like to contribute an article on speculative realism. I offered instead this article on A. N. Whitehead's organic realism. Consequently the overview of Whitehead's philosophy emphasises the realist aspects—more theological aspects are avoided. Peer-reviewed.
www.philosophynow.org/issues/114/The_Philosophy_of_Organism
Peter Sjöstedt-H interview for 3:am Magazine
Interview by Richard Marshall and Lindsay Jordan.
https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/noumenaut-psychedelics-philosophy
May 2017
The article was commissioned by High Existence.
– Introduction
– 1. The Genetic Argument
– 2. The Abstraction Argument
– 3. The Inferential Argument
– Why Panpsychism is Spurned
– End Remarks
Originally published 15 January 2018: http://highexistence.com/panpsychism-3-reasons-why-our-world-brimming-sentience/ [note different subtitle]
Accompanying audio version: https://youtu.be/B7B_RmZQp5Q
©Peter Sjöstedt-H 2018
First published in the Psychedelic Press Journal, vol. XII, then as chapter VI in Noumenautics, and thereafter as an online article on HighExistence.com. Respectively:
https://psychedelicpress.co.uk/products/psychedelic-press-uk-journal-2015-volume-iv?mc_cid=bb137e4065&mc_eid=385faf533c
https://psychedelicpress.co.uk/collections/display-titles/products/noumenautics
http://highexistence.com/antichrist-psychonaut-nietzsche-psychoactive-drugs/
This article was based on a talk given for the University of Exeter Philosophy Society (video: https://youtu.be/X2eY4n37FC0) and at the ICPR2016 conference. It was published in the popular HighExistence magazine on August 2nd 2016, and has received over 90 000 social media shares (http://highexistence.com/hidden-psychedelic-influence-philosophy-plato-nietzsche-psychonauts-thoughts).
Reference:
Sjöstedt-H, P. 'The Psychedelic Influence on Philosophy', HighExistence.com (2nd-08-2016)
Philosophy Now, no. 114, June/July 2016, pp. 22–23
I was asked by Philosophy Now magazine whether I'd like to contribute an article on speculative realism. I offered instead this article on A. N. Whitehead's organic realism. Consequently the overview of Whitehead's philosophy emphasises the realist aspects—more theological aspects are avoided. Peer-reviewed.
www.philosophynow.org/issues/114/The_Philosophy_of_Organism
[Recorded 26 October 2018; published 16 January 2019]
This took place at Noden in Stockholm. Thanks to the NPV.
Join Sjöstedt-H on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ontologistics
www.philosopher.eu
Transcript: www.academia.edu/23885796/A_Conspectus_of_A._N._Whiteheads_Metaphysics
This review was published online on 13 June 2019: http://psypressuk.com/2019/06/13/alien-information-theory-gallimore/
[This thesis was passed in January 2019 with viva examination from Galen Strawson and Joel Krueger. Supervised by Tom Roberts, Michael Hauskeller, and John Dupré.]
University of Exeter – April 16–19, 2020
www.philosophyofpsychedelics.com