Irina-Gabriela BudaCorresponding author

Consciousness and Evolution

Article
14/2 - Fall 2009, pages 329-342
Date of online publication: 15 novembre 2009
Date of publication: 01 novembre 2009

Abstract

I analyse some of the key evolutionary issues that arise in the study of consciousness from a bio-philosophical point of view. They all seem to be related to the fact that phenomenality has a special status: it is a very complex feature, apparently more than biological, it is hard to define because of the plurality of its displays (cognition, various emotions, other complex functions such as vision) and it is difficult to study with classic evolutionary tools (such as philogenetics or paleoanthropology). Giving an answer to the question “is consciousness an adaptive trait?” thus seems to be very difficult and this paper intends to sketch some of the problems we should be concerned with when studying phenomenality as an adaptation.

Keywords

Cite this article

Buda, Irina-Gabriela. “Consciousness and Evolution.” Forum Philosophicum 14, no. 2 (2009): 329–42. doi:10.35765/forphil.2009.1402.24.

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Copyright

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License