Consciousness or the art of foul play
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 10 (3):227-247 (1997)
| Abstract | The psychological literature about consciousness has been analyzed. It is argued that: 1) Only the higher symbolic cognitive powers like the ability to keep secrets, knowledge of self or self-consciousness, a long-term view on the future, the ability to determine long-term goals, and to freely plan future behavior, add positive fitness-value to consciousness. Without these higher intellectual abilities consciousness will have only negative fitness value and no positive one. The intellectual powers mentioned may therefore be considered as prerequisites for consciousness. Consciousness may therefore only be expected in those animal species that show these capacities in their behavior. So far these capacities have only been described for the anthropoid apes and humans. For the time being, they are therefore the only species in which consciousness may be expected. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,709 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesMichael V. Antony (2002). Concepts of Consciousness, Kinds of Consciousness, Meanings of 'Consciousness'. Philosophical Studies 109 (1):1-16.
Rocco J. Gennaro (1992). Consciousness, Self-Consciousness, and Episodic Memory. Philosophical Psychology 5 (4):333-47.
Michael Tye (1995). The Burning House. In Thomas Metzinger (ed.), Conscious Experience. Imprint Academic & Paderborn.
W. D. Lighthall (1926). The Outer Consciousness, a Biological Entity. Montreal, Witness Press.
Uriah Kriegel (2004). Consciousness and Self-Consciousness. The Monist 87 (2):182-205.
Rocco J. Gennaro (1996). Consciousness and Self-Consciousness: A Defense of the Higher-Order Thought Theory of Consciousness. John Benjamins.
Uriah Kriegel (2003). Consciousness as Intransitive Self-Consciousness: Two Views and an Argument. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 33 (1):103-132.
Michael V. Antony (2001). Is 'Consciousness' Ambiguous? Journal of Consciousness Studies 8 (2):19-44.
Dara Llewellyn & Craig Pearson (eds.) (2011). Consciousness-Based Education: A Foundation for Teaching and Learning in the Academic Disciplines. Consciousness-Based Books, an Imprint of Maharishi University of Management Press.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads5 ( #160,518 of 549,753 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,425 of 549,753 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
