Sentience: The Invention of ConsciousnessThe story of a quest to uncover the evolutionary history of consciousness from one of the world's leading theoretical psychologists. We feel, therefore we are. Conscious sensations ground our sense of self. They are crucial to our idea of ourselves as psychic beings: present, existent, and mattering. But is it only humans who feel this way? Do other animals? Will future machines? Weaving together intellectual adventure and cutting-edge science, Nicholas Humphrey describes in Sentience his quest for answers: from his discovery of blindsight in monkeys and his pioneering work on social intelligence to breakthroughs in the philosophy of mind. The goal is to solve the hard problem: to explain the wondrous, eerie fact of “phenomenal consciousness”—the redness of a poppy, the sweetness of honey, the pain of a bee sting. What does this magical dimension of experience amount to? What is it for? And why has it evolved? Humphrey presents here his new solution. He proposes that phenomenal consciousness, far from being primitive, is a relatively late and sophisticated evolutionary development. The implications for the existence of sentience in nonhuman animals are startling and provocative. |
Contents
1 | |
Foothills | 13 |
The touch of light | 16 |
Blythe spirits | 21 |
What the frogs eye tells the monkeys brain | 32 |
Blindsight | 40 |
Sight unseen | 50 |
Red sky at night | 54 |
Theoretical misprisions | 125 |
Sentience and body sense | 130 |
Sentience all the way down? | 134 |
Mapping the landscape | 145 |
Getting warmer | 148 |
Testing testing | 153 |
Qualiaphilia | 158 |
The self in action | 175 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
able activity actually animals answer appear assume become behaviour believe Bernie birds blindsight body brain called Cambridge cells colour comes course creatures described discussion dogs effect evidence evolution evolved example exist expect experience eyes fact feel Figure follow give gorillas happens Helen humans idea imagine intelligence interest it's kind later light living look Mary matter means mental mind monkey move natural natural selection never objects observed pain perception perhaps person phenomenal consciousness phenomenal properties philosopher phosphenes physical play position possibility Press problem psychologist question reason represent representation response robots seems sensations sense sensory sentience simply social soon sound stimulation story suggest Suppose sure theory there's things thought tion touch true turn understand University vision visual what's