Panexperiential

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to the philosophical doctrine that every entity in the universe, not only living beings, possesses some form of subjective experience
2. Describing a worldview holding that experience or consciousness is a basic feature present throughout all of nature and matter
3. Characterizing the belief that mind-like experiential qualities extend down to the most fundamental constituents of reality

Etymology: "Panexperiential" is built from the prefix "pan-", meaning "all" or "every" in Greek, and "experiential," so it names the view that experience or something like it runs through all of nature, down to the smallest physical things. The prefix is the familiar Greek one found in "pantheism" and "panorama," and it gives the word its sweeping scope: where a narrower term would single out living creatures or brains, this one extends the idea of mind-like experience to everything. The adjective is a modern coinage of the kind philosophers and theorists produce when an older vocabulary no longer fits a position. Its base, "experiential," describes what is lived through and felt, which is why the compound reads as "all-experiential" in a literal sense. Compounds of this sort are typically built from classical elements in the way technical terms have been since the 18th and 19th centuries, so the word reflects a deliberate construction rather than a long popular history.

Synonyms: universal, comprehensive

Antonyms: partial