Damasio on consciousness
From the introduction to Chapter 9 of his new book The Strange Order of Things.
“The term ‘consciousness’ applies to the very natural but distinctive kind of mental state described by the above [subjective] traits. The mental state allows its owner to be the private experiencer of the world around and, just as important, to experience aspects of his or her own being. For practical purposes, the universe of knowledge, current and past, that can be conjured up in a private mind only materializes to its owner when the owner’s mind is in a conscious state, able to survey the contents of that mind, in his or her own subjective perspective.” This perspective is combined with “integrated experience, which consists of placing mental contents into a more or less unified multidimensional panorama” (143- 44).
Also of note is that consciousness is not located in any particular brain area but “it is possible to identify several brain regions and systems that are unequivocally related to producing key ingredients of the process as outlined earlier: perspectival stance, feeling and experience integration” (154). But “still, the panoramic integrated experience […] is not to be found in one single brain structure but rather in more or less numerous time series of frames being activated piecemeal” (156).
Damasio includes the phenomenology of subjective experience in his definition, like Thompson. He also acknowledges the various modules or components of consciousness do indeed active in certain brain areas, like EP. But he also notes that overall consciousness includes all the above with no specific brain location, more like a general integrative process.
I’m also reminded of this article which discusses both modal and amodal representations with some recommendations. The embodied thesis claims that sensorimotor modes are fundamental in forming more abstract concepts and representations. It is critical of the amodal representation thesis, the pure expression of the latter claiming representational meaning is divorced from bodily experience.
Given the neuroscientific research to date, there is evidence for both systems, so the authors propose a hybrid. There is an amodal conceptual hub located in the anterior temporal cortex which integrates the information from the modal sensorimotor areas.
https://www.kfki.hu/~csdori/Concepts.pdf
In his chapter “On cultures” Damasio promotes a form of not only cultural evolution but cultural selection. Granted cultural selection is based on earlier kin selection and its motives, but cultural selection can and does override those earlier motives in collective bonds based on motives like group compassion and altruism. He even cites DS Wilson’s book on the topic.
Damasio gave a talk at the Stanford Boundaries of Humanity forum, link below. Here are a couple of summary excerpts from the talk. “There are key distinguishing factors between humans and other species. For example, human cultural productions are much greater and more complex than those of other species. Professor Damasio focused on human mental faculties including symbolism, narrative, learning, and memory. He argued that these capabilities, specifically the extensive integration of memory and language into human cognition, allows for a contextualization of feelings that differs from that of other species. […] Human feelings are connected to past memories, and… Read more »
From the referenced book, a tome on biological evolution, Damasio realizes we have two natures: One dominated by natural selection pressures and one we’ve consciously and culturally created. The former are individually selfish and the latter are communally caring. There is a constant struggle between the two. “But here is a place for remedy: Controlling the relentless pursuit of our self-interests so that we make broader homeostasis efforts possible. […] We can directly and willfully counter our genetic mandate when we refuse to act on our appetite for food or sex, or resist the impulse to punish another, or when… Read more »
He also discusses sociobiology and evolutionary psychology on p. 166. He said: “The fact that the worlds of feeling and reason are in endless interplay, and that cultural ideas, objects and practices are inevitably caught in their accommodations and contradictions, has not been the focus of those efforts (although evolutionary psychologists have included the action component of the world of affect-such as emotions-in their proposals.) The same applies to the topic I privilege in this book: the ways in which the cultural mind copes with human drama and exploits human possibilities, and the manner in which cultural selection completes the… Read more »
In the book Damasio noted that Dehaene’s view of consciousness was similar to his own. If interested you can download a copy of Consciousness and the Brain at the following link. It is in Epub format but Epub readers are available for free on the internet. Note I downloaded this copy and scanned it with no viruses.
http://b-ok.xyz/book/2326576/f448c3
Damasio explores not on the how but the why of biological evolution. The origin of human consciousness lies deep in antiquity with the first cell and its homeostatic impulse, its affective capacity to determine what is or not necessary for its survival and flourishing. He also finds this to be the root of evolutionary selection and adaptation, their action motivator. Primitive cellular homeostatic drives continue onward on the evolutionary path to more complex life forms with their accompanying consciousness and emotions, yet homeostasis remains as that original adaptive and selective driver. And human feeling continues to bridge that evolutionary gap… Read more »
Damasio is far from alone on homeostasis being a causative basis for biological evolution. Some other examples:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4588151/
https://journal.emergentpublications.com/article/homeostasis-complexity-and-the-problem-of-biological-design/
https://biologydirect.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13062-016-0109-6
E.g., from the first link: “”If in effect life is a continuum that emanates from the unicellular state, then homeostasis functions at all levels of biology as a fractal, independent of scale [4]. So the properties of allostasis are a higher-level expression of the same homeostatic principles expressed at the cellular, tissue and organ levels. The examples used by McEwen and Wingfield [31,32]—blood pressure, metabolism, pH, complex patterns of bird migration—are all derived from homeostatic regulation of the unicellular state, having evolved in support of multicellular organisms. Migratory birds were used by Ernst Mayr [80] to exemplify the difference between… Read more »
A reminder that this thread is pertinent to our upcoming discussion so please review.