The First Minds : Caterpillars, Karyotes, and Consciousness

著者名：Reber, Arthur S.

Oxford University Press（2018/10/25発売）

• 言語：ENG
• ISBN：9780190854157
• eISBN：9780190854171

Description

First Minds: Caterpillars, 'Karyotes, and Consciousness presents a novel theory of the origins of mind and consciousness dubbed the Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC). It argues that sentience emerged with life itself. The most primitive unicellular species of bacteria are conscious, though it is a sentience of a primitive kind. They have minds, though they are tiny and limited in scope. Hints that cells might be conscious can be found in the writings of a few cell biologists but a fully developed theory has never been put forward before.Other approaches to the origins of consciousness are examined and shown to be seriously or fatally flawed, specifically approaches based on: (a) the assumption that minds are computational and can be captured by an Artificial Intelligence, (b) efforts to discover the neuro-correlates of mental experiences and, (c) looking for consciousness in less complex species by identifying those that have precursors of those neuro-correlates. Reber shows how each of these approaches is shown to be either essentially impossible (the AI models) or so burdened by philosophical and empirical difficulties that they are effectively unworkable.The CBC approach is developed using standard models of evolutionary biology. The remarkable repertoire of single-celled species that micro- and cell-biologists have discovered is reviewed. Bacteria, for example, have sophisticated sensory and perceptual systems, learn, form memories, make decisions based on information about their environment relative to internal metabolic states, communicate with each other, and even show a primitive form of altruism. All such functions are indicators of sentience.Finally, the implications of the CBC model are discussed along with a number of related issues in evolutionary biology, philosophy of mind, the possibility of sentient plants, the ethical repercussions of universal animal sentience, and the long-range impact of adopting the CBC stance.

Table of Contents

Table of ContentsPrefaceWhere the Voyage Began: A Personal NoteA Quick OverviewAn Aside on TerminologyAn Aside on the Nature of Philosophic ArgumentDistinguishing between Evolutionary Biology and Evolutionary PsychologyA Note on CitationsSummaryChapter I : Can Robots be Conscious?Functionalism or the Possibility of "Hardware-Independent" ConsciousnessWhat Do I/You Know about Minds? Yours and/or Mine?Is there Something It Is Like To Be a Robot?John Searle's Chinese RoomThe Anthropomorphic "Tug"SummaryChapter II: Why Has A CBC-Type Model Not Been Proposed Before?My Propaedeutic CaterpillarThree Reasons for HesitatingIn Defense of AnthropomorphismA Short Aside on Fish Pain? An Object LessonThose Who Are, Might Be, or Perhaps Should be Comfortable with Sentient cellsSummaryChapter III. Bio-centric Views of the Origin of Consciousness: The Search for the Solution to the Hard ProblemGeneral Theories of the Origins of ConsciousnessPhylogenetic Searching for the First Appearance of ConsciousnessSome Thoughts on These EffortsStumbling into a Category ErrorThe Emergentist's DilemmaAnticipating Criticism: Some Prophylactic ArgumentsSummaryChapter IV: Where we Get Serious: The Cellular Basis of ConsciousnessCommon Threads with Other Areas of ResearchA Short Aside on a Personal BewildermentA Short Aside on which Unicellular Species We're Talking AboutThe Cellular Basis of Consciousness FrameworkA Closer Look at Unicellular LifeSummaryCoda: Anticipating Criticism (once more) and Defending Against itChapter V: Entailments of the Cellular Basis of Consciousness StanceOn Evolution's Hierarchical StructureReductionismAvoiding MysterianismEmpirical Problems Searching for SolutionsPlantsEthical ConsiderationsA Short Aside on Altruism and CooperationSecondary GainsSummaryAppendix A: An Exercise in Lexicography: Defining (?) ConsciousnessAppendix B: The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, with CommentaryReferences