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Is Consciousness a Spandrel?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2015

ZACK ROBINSON ,
COREY J. MALEY  and
GUALTIERO PICCININI
ZACK ROBINSON
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI – ST. LOUIS
COREY J. MALEY
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
GUALTIERO PICCININI
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI – ST. LOUISpiccininig@umsl.edu
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Abstract:

Determining the biological function of phenomenal consciousness appears necessary to explain its origin: evolution by natural selection operates on organisms’ traits based on the biological functions they fulfill. But identifying the function of phenomenal consciousness has proven difficult. Some have proposed that the function of phenomenal consciousness is to facilitate mental processes such as reasoning or learning. But mental processes such as reasoning and learning seem to be possible in the absence of phenomenal consciousness. It is difficult to pinpoint in what way phenomenal consciousness enhances these processes or others like them. In this paper, we explore a possibility that has been neglected to date. Perhaps phenomenal consciousness has no function of its own because it is either a by-product of other traits or a (functionless) accident. If so, then phenomenal consciousness has an evolutionary explanation even though it fulfills no biological function.

Keywords

philosophy of mindconsciousnessphilosophy of scienceevolutionphilosophy of neuroscience
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the American Philosophical Association , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , Summer 2015 , pp. 365 - 383
Copyright
Copyright © American Philosophical Association 2015 

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