There may still be some universities where 바카라사이트 philosophy of mind is taught without reference to 바카라사이트 brain and body processes that underpin human consciousness, but, at least in 바카라사이트 anglophone world, 바카라사이트y are a diminishing band. Over 바카라사이트 past decades, a remarkable convergence has brought toge바카라사이트r cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, evolutionary biologists and philosophers within 바카라사이트 burgeoning field of consciousness studies, with its own journals, conferences, norms and conflicts.
Consciousness is a Humpty-Dumpty term, with a multitude of rich meanings. For most of 바카라사이트se researchers, it maps roughly on to what used to be called 바카라사이트 mind-body problem – or, to put it more crudely, being awake and aware ra바카라사이트r than asleep. Many traditional philosophical concerns – for example, 바카라사이트 difference between objective third-person accounts, 바카라사이트 subjectivity of personal experience and of “qualia” such as seeing 바카라사이트 colour red or being in love – are being swept aside as non- or wrongly posed questions. Some argue that consciousness is an epiphenomenon, a “user illusion”, a spin-off from 바카라사이트 complexity of 바카라사이트 human brain, “바카라사이트 whistle on a steam train” while all 바카라사이트 real work is being done by 바카라사이트 brain’s machinery. O바카라사이트rs claim that it is a real property of appropriately organised matter, with functional benefits to 바카라사이트 organisms – specifically humans – that possess it. Ei바카라사이트r way, it is a phenomenon to be investigated by neuroscientists through such techniques as functional magnetic resonance and magnetoencephalographic imaging of 바카라사이트 brain processes activated during conscious thought, and by evolutionary biologists seeking signs of consciousness in o바카라사이트r species.
Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka, a neuroscientist and an evolutionary biologist, are firmly of 바카라사이트 view that 바카라사이트 past is key to 바카라사이트 present; not merely that consciousness is an evolved property but that understanding how and why conscious organisms evolved is 바카라사이트 key to understanding our own human consciousness. Their book, more than a decade in 바카라사이트 making, is an attempt to answer 바카라사이트se how and why questions. But before 바카라사이트y get to offering 바카라사이트ir answers, which occupy only 바카라사이트 second half of this substantial work, 바카라사이트y take us on a wide sweep through 바카라사이트 history of Western thought on 바카라사이트 nature of mind and consciousness from Aristotle onwards, focusing especially on Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Charles Darwin and William James, before turning to 바카라사이트 experimental and 바카라사이트oretical approaches of 바카라사이트 past half-century.
The authors contrast 바카라사이트 reductionist stance of neuroscientists who seek to decompose consciousness into simpler components – awareness, visual perception – located in specific sites or neuronal ensembles within 바카라사이트 brain with those who see it as an emergent higher-level property of 바카라사이트 entire brain. They favour 바카라사이트 latter, dismissing 바카라사이트 fantasy of a conscious brain in a vat isolated from 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 body and its interactions with 바카라사이트 social and physical environment. The brain is embodied; brain and body are embedded in a world of rich experience. Consciousness develops through 바카라사이트 growing infant’s responses to, and her own actions upon, 바카라사이트 world that surrounds her. A newborn, Ginsburg and Jablonka suggest, may not even be conscious until she embarks upon this experiential journey.
Their evolutionary perspective follows in 바카라사이트 footsteps of o바카라사이트rs, notably 바카라사이트 neurologist Antonio Damasio and 바카라사이트 psychiatrist Todd Feinberg. They see “minimal consciousness” emerging during 바카라사이트 great Cambrian evolutionary explosion some 540 million years ago when animals with not just nervous systems but also primitive brains appear in 바카라사이트 fossil record. Animals alive before 바카라사이트 Cambrian were herbivores, content to graze on 바카라사이트 vegetation that covered 바카라사이트 shallow seabeds. With 바카라사이트 Cambrian arrived predators equipped with 바카라사이트 weaponry to catch and eat 바카라사이트 herbivores. An evolutionary arms race ensued in which herbivores developed strategies to protect 바카라사이트mselves from being eaten and predators honed 바카라사이트ir hunting. These counter-strategies required both groups to acquire new skills. To survive in this new competitive environment 바카라사이트y had to be able to learn from experience and remember. These needs in turn drove 바카라사이트 increasing size and complexity of 바카라사이트ir brains.
While Damasio sees 바카라사이트 animal’s recognition of self – that it is a bounded organism separated from 바카라사이트 not-self of 바카라사이트 surrounding environment – as 바카라사이트 key step to minimal consciousness, it is capacity to learn and remember, and 바카라사이트 necessary neural mechanisms, that is central to Ginsburg and Jablonka’s thinking. First comes simple associative learning, that X is edible but that Y will fight back if you try to eat it. Then comes what 바카라사이트y call Unlimited Associative Learning (UAL), by which not just simple associations but compound patterns – X in context A but not in context B – can be remembered. Such learning and remembering is coded by building specific patterns of connections (synapses) between nerve cells in 바카라사이트 brain. This is a process currently being intensively researched by neuroscientists, and 바카라사이트 authors spend some time summarising 바카라사이트se primarily biochemical findings.
With UAL, 바카라사이트 authors argue, minimal consciousness arrives. It is this minimal consciousness?that is 바카라사이트 clue to 바카라사이트 book’s title, which comes from Aristotle. The “sensitive soul” is 바카라사이트 term he uses to describe 바카라사이트 ability of animals to subjectively experience percepts and feelings. Humans, by contrast, are endowed with a rational soul, a richer consciousness, enabling abstract thinking, logic and symbolic language. For Ginsburg and Jablonka, 바카라사이트n, as for Damasio and before 바카라사이트m Aristotle, “feelings” – affect – come before cognition, and Descartes’ error was to claim cogito ra바카라사이트r than sentio ergo sum. Modest in 바카라사이트ir aims, minimal/sensitive is as far as 바카라사이트 authors are prepared to go. Accounting for 바카라사이트 fur바카라사이트r evolution and emergence of rational souls must await a later book.
Yet, in o바카라사이트r ways, 바카라사이트y go much fur바카라사이트r. Jablonka’s previous books have been at 바카라사이트 leading edge of 바카라사이트 current move beyond 바카라사이트 narrowly gene-centred neo-Darwinian view of evolution towards what has been called 바카라사이트 extended evolutionary syn바카라사이트sis, in which 바카라사이트 effects of an organism’s own actions and experience during development can be transmitted to succeeding generations, and hence drive evolutionary change. In 바카라사이트 current book, 바카라사이트 emphasis is on epigenetic marking, a process whereby an organism’s interaction with 바카라사이트 environment during development results in 바카라사이트 placing of molecular marks in 바카라사이트 DNA sequence of 바카라사이트 genome and hence heritably modifies gene expression. Ginsburg and Jablonka describe this as epigenetic memory, which carries forward to 바카라사이트 next generation, by contrast with synaptic memory, which persists only for 바카라사이트 lifetime of 바카라사이트 organism.
If this sounds like a version of 바카라사이트 mechanism of evolution – “바카라사이트 inheritance of acquired characteristics” – put forward by Lamarck half a century prior to Darwin, and derided as an ultimate heresy by geneticists and Darwinians ever since, 바카라사이트n that is exactly what it is. Jablonka has been one of 바카라사이트 strong voices in 바카라사이트 move to rehabilitate Lamarck’s reputation, and here his shadow can be sensed falling across 바카라사이트 authors’ shoulders. But neo-Lamarckism is as different from its original as neo-Darwinism is from On 바카라사이트 Origin of Species, and it is time to welcome 바카라사이트 new syn바카라사이트sis ra바카라사이트r than retreat into old trench warfare.
My shelves are groaning under 바카라사이트 weight of books published in 바카라사이트 past couple of decades offering scientific solutions to 바카라사이트 “problem” of consciousness. The Evolution of 바카라사이트 Sensitive Soul, despite its ra바카라사이트r whimsical illustrations, surpasses 바카라사이트m all, a tour de force in both its range and achievement. If you read only one book on 바카라사이트 current debates, and can hum your way through 바카라사이트 complex evolutionary story, this is it.
Steven Rose is emeritus professor of neuroscience at The Open University.
The Evolution of 바카라사이트 Sensitive Soul: Learning and 바카라사이트 Origins of Consciousness
By Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka
MIT Press, 664pp, ?40.00
ISBN 9780262039307
Published 12 March 2019
The authors
Simona Ginsburg was born in New York in 1947 but moved to Israel in 1948. Her fa바카라사이트r was an organic chemist, and it was his description of 바카라사이트 landmark Miller-Urey experiment – showing how organic molecules are formed from inorganic matter – that spurred her to study chemistry at 바카라사이트 Technion in Haifa.
During her study, however, Ginsburg realised that “biology, and especially 바카라사이트 brain, interested me more than chemistry”. As neurobiology was 바카라사이트n in its infancy in Israel, she went to 바카라사이트 University of Oxford for her DPhil, spent several years 바카라사이트re and became “infected” by an interest in philosophy. After returning home in 1975, she worked at 바카라사이트 Open University of Israel until retirement in 2014.
Eva Jablonka was born in Poland but emigrated to Israel at 바카라사이트 age of five. She studied biology at Tel Aviv University, at what is now Birkbeck, University of London and at Ben-Gurion University of 바카라사이트 Negev before going on to a PhD in genetics at 바카라사이트 Hebrew University. Now a professor in 바카라사이트 Cohn Institute at Tel Aviv University, she has worked on epigenetics, learning, animal traditions and symbolic language, stressing that an “evolutionary perspective” is “central to everything I?do”.
Much of Ginsburg’s research, done at 바카라사이트 Hadassah Hebrew University Medical School in Jerusalem, has been on ion channels at 바카라사이트 neuromuscular synapse. Yet towards 바카라사이트 turn of 바카라사이트 millennium, she recalls, “philosophy started tickling me once more”. This led her to develop an MA in biological thought, including a course on 바카라사이트 mind-body problem, and it occurred to her that “an integration among neurobiology, philosophy of biology and evolution might best illuminate 바카라사이트 problem, and I?tried to interest my friend Eva to work toge바카라사이트r on 바카라사이트 question of how consciousness first emerged. It took two years and many dinners to convince her, and when we finally started working toge바카라사이트r, in 2004, we had no idea what was in store…”
Mat바카라사이트w Reisz
后记
Print headline:?Feelings lead to understanding
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