Explaining the evolution of consciousness: The other hard problem

Abstract

Recently some philosophers interested in consciousness have begun to turn their attention to the question of what evolutionary advantages, if any, being conscious might confer on an organism. The issue has been pressed in recent dicussions involving David Chalmers, Todd Moody, Owen Flanagan and Thomas Polger, Daniel Dennett, and others. The purpose of this essay is to consider some of the problems that face anyone who wants to give an evolutionary explanation of consciousness. We begin by framing the problem in the context of some current debates. Then we.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

  • Only published works are available at libraries.

Similar books and articles

Facing backwards on the problem of consciousness.Daniel C. Dennett - 1996 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 3 (1):4-6.
The philosophical issue in machine consciousness.Piotr Boltuc - 2009 - International Journal of Machine Consciousness 1 (1):155-176.
Evolutionary explanation and the hard problem of consciousness.Steven Horst - 1999 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 6 (1):39-48.
Facing up to the problem of consciousness.David Chalmers - 1995 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (3):200-19.
Explaining the "magic" of consciousness.Daniel C. Dennett - 2003 - Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology 1 (1):7-19.
A hard problem indeed.Gregory R. Peterson - 2009 - Zygon 44 (1):19-29.
Zombies and the function of consciousness.Owen J. Flanagan & Thomas W. Polger - 1995 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (4):313-21.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
304 (#60,766)

6 months
7 (#175,814)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Tom Polger
University of Cincinnati

Citations of this work

Add more citations

References found in this work

Facing up to the problem of consciousness.David Chalmers - 1995 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (3):200-19.
On a confusion about a function of consciousness.Ned Block - 1995 - Brain and Behavioral Sciences 18 (2):227-–247.
The Illusion of Conscious Will.Daniel M. Wegner - 2002 - Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

View all 39 references / Add more references