B.I.B. Lindahl

On the Origin of Consciousness — Some Amniote Scenarios

Publisher Summary The phylogenetic origin of consciousness is virtually unknown. One reason for this is that there is no consensus about usable empirical markers of consciousness. The search for such markers may be conducted along two basic lines: the first focusing on cognitive-behavioral characteristics, the second on physiological-anatomical characteristics. The outcome of inquiries conducted in accordance with the respective approach may vary considerably. Cognitive and behavioral criteria may range from simple stimulus-response characteristics to a capacity for language, and physiological and anatomical criteria from a primitive sensory apparatus to a six-layered cerebral cortex. Consequently the results can be as divergent as speculations about consciousness in insects, and even in protozoans, to the view that consciousness is limited to humans alone. This chapter examines consciousness markers in the cognitive-behavioral and anatomical-physiological characteristic, from Homo sapiens to the origin of amniotes more generally, searching for steps or discontinuities, suggesting the emergence of traits that can be associated with consciousness.

Health and evolution

Darwinian medicine may shed new light on the notion of health and many current health problems. In this paper, health, as an ability to realize ones own welfare, is compared with health as an ability—either being developed or actually present—to perform a reproductive function of ones species. It is argued that knowledge about the conditions for health in the latter sense may enhance our efforts to promote health in the former sense.