A Role for Consciousness
David Hodgson
David Hodgson
Quote:I want to offer a specific and straightforward proposal as to what the role of consciousness is:
Consciousness enables an organism to be responsive to circumstances grasped as wholes, not just to constituent features that can engage with laws or rules.
To expand a little:
The evolutionary advantage of consciousness is that it enables an organism to determine and/or shape a response to circumstances facing it that has regard, not only to features that can engage with laws of nature and/or computational rules, but also to whole combinations of features that are particular and perhaps unique to the circumstances and cannot as wholes engage with laws or rules.
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
- Bertrand Russell
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