The Science of Consciousness

About this event

Our purpose in this group is to explore the science of consciousness, drawing from sources that range from neuroscience to cognitive psychology to philosophy of mind. Although we will occasionally draw from the insights of spiritual introspective traditions, our focus here will be on what can be supported by the best current science regarding how the mind supervenes on the brain. What marked the evolutionary transition from organisms that lacked consciousness to those with consciousness—to minimal subjective experiencing, or, as Aristotle described it, “the sensitive soul”? Using a methodology similar to that used by scientists when they identified the transition from non-life to life, Ginsburg and Jablonka suggest a set of criteria, identify a marker for the transition to minimal consciousness, and explore the far-reaching biological, psychological, and philosophical implications. The authors propose that the evolutionary marker of basic or minimal consciousness is a complex form of associative learning, which drove the Cambrian explosion and its massive diversification of organisms. Finally, Ginsburg and Jablonka propose symbolic language as a similar type of marker for the evolutionary transition to human rationality—to Aristotle's “rational soul.” This week we will finish the last few pages of Chapter 8, and then begin Chapter 9 in The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul by Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka. In the interests of clarifying our recent discussion of epigenetics in modern evolutionary biology, it may help to check out this paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15592294.2024.2380929?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed#abstract https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Sensitive-Soul-Learning-Consciousness-ebook/dp/B08BSX9BTX/ref=sr_1_1crid=3PRFL46JJKPXP&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.7j6jwPaIwp7-31PNRPYo-90jvq7vje0fzUEvKOOBaMsJFQLkS5IvQyYTddn0BDxmFyjZtMx1GjaaQMBR2f0otBkQ8XnZy9-8TPcDokV9SawaBq4k7pD0nhGwdywJWlGgFo4u0wTaPhB-7_oTqMJb8w.yqEfLO5OW3q_x00OT1_yuDORz_WYDQOYUuu6BkHMrfs&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+evolution+of+the+sensitive+soul&qid=1783055103&sprefix=the+evolution+of+the+sen%2Caps%2C192&sr=8-1 Some videos related to our discussion: https://youtu.be/OlnioeAtloY?si=InRBosXjZ8_PRWiQ & https://youtu.be/kRQMOF5c2Z8?si=YuDeNferL8trq9fF Bonus Paper: In case we need more clarification about the key concept of UAL (Unlimited Associative Learning), this paper by Birch, Jablonka & Ginsburg should prove useful: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7116763/