Did Consciousness Cause the Cambrian Evolutionary Explosion?
نویسندگان
چکیده
When and where did consciousness emerge in the course of evolution? Did it happen as recently as the past million years, for example concomitant with language or tool making in humans or primates? Or did consciousness arrive somewhat earlier, with the advent of mammalian neocortex 200 million years ago (Eccles, 1992)? At the other extreme, is primitive consciousness a property of even simple unicellular organisms of several billion years ago (e.g. as suggested by Margulis and Sagan, 1995)? Or did consciousness appear at some intermediate point, and if so, where and why? Whenever it first occurred, did consciousness alter the course of evolution?
منابع مشابه
The Transition to Experiencing: II. The Evolution of Associative Learning Based on Feelings
Eva Jablonka Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv, Israel [email protected] Abstract We discuss the evolutionary transition from animals with limited experiencing to animals with unlimited experiencing and basic consciousness. This transition was, we suggest, intimately linked with the evolution of associative learning and with fl...
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