How Did Consciousness Originate? (evolution)

[Sunstone]

How did consciouness originate? In what way did consciousness have an evolutionary advantage over nonconsciousness? Why are we conscious animals today?

Did consciousness help further our ability to communicate?

Did it make us a craftier, willier, more deceptive predator?

Did it allow us to gain advantage of others through lies and deceits?

What were the survival advantages that resulted in the natural selection of conscious individuals?

[Terrywoodenpic]

I am not convinced that many if not all higher animals are concious as well.
I would be very surprise if we were the only concious species.

(Knowing and perceiving; having awareness of surroundings and sensations and thoughts) I think the only contentious issue is the depth of thought another species might have.

[Sunstone]

Good point, Terry! There is some good evidence that some of the other apes, as well as dolphins, have self awareness. That would suggest they have at least some functions of conscious thought. But how did consciousness originate? What is the advantage of it?

[PureX]

I think someone needs to define "conscious" and "unconscious" for this thread. And where are these in relation to self-awareness?

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by PureX

I think someone needs to define "conscious" and "unconscious" for this thread. And where are these in relation to self-awareness?

OOOPS! I should have said "self recognition" when referring to the capabilities of some apes and dolphins. Consciousness is self awareness, for the purposes of this thread. It's not conclusively demonstrated that apes and dolphins have a fully human sense of self awareness, although they do recognize themselves in mirrors and such.

At any rate, how did consciousness originate? What was its evolutionary advantages over a lack of self awareness?

[PureX]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

OOOPS! I should have said "self recognition" when referring to the capabilities of some apes and dolphins. Consciousness is self awareness, for the purposes of this thread. It's not conclusively demonstrated that apes and dolphins have a fully human sense of self awareness, although they do recognize themselves in mirrors and such.

At any rate, how did consciousness originate? What was its evolutionary advantages over a lack of self awareness?

That's the difficulty I have with discussions of self-awareness. We humans are only vaguely self-aware, in my opinion. And we don't really have any idea how self-aware other animals are. Given our degree of ignorance on this subject, I'm not sure where we can go with it.

To give an example, if humans were self-aware, they could govern their numbers relative to their resources. As it is, we can't even manage ourselves on a level this simple and obvious. So what do we really have to say about self-awareness?

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by PureX

That's the difficulty I have with discussions of self-awareness. We humans are only vaguely self-aware, in my opinion. And we don't really have any idea how self-aware other animals are. Given our degree of ignorance on this subject, I'm not sure where we can go with it.

To give an example, if humans were self-aware, they could govern their numbers relative to their resources. As it is, we can't even manage ourselves on a level this simple and obvious. So what do we really have to say about self-awareness?

That's a very interesting point, but I'm not sure it's the topic of this thread.

How do you suppose our limited self awareness originated? How did it evolve? What were the advantages of it?

[michel]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

OOOPS! I should have said "self recognition" when referring to the capabilities of some apes and dolphins. Consciousness is self awareness, for the purposes of this thread. It's not conclusively demonstrated that apes and dolphins have a fully human sense of self awareness, although they do recognize themselves in mirrors and such.

At any rate, how did consciousness originate? What was its evolutionary advantages over a lack of self awareness?

There's a vey good article here:- http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_cente...xt_cult_5.html

A short intro:-

Several factors helped make us civilized, sentient human beings. Here we examine briefly a half-dozen such factors in relatively recent human evolution and more or less chronologically: the dawning of rudimentary technology, the discovery of useful fire, the development of symbolic language, the emergence of observational science, the design of mythical stories, and the recognition of self-consciousness. Undoubtedly other factors also helped make us thoughtful, cultured humans, but practical advances and critical thinking such as these are representative of the more important ones.

I was going to ask what exactly is consciousness; I am glad I am not the only one.

I suppose the argument of evolution is the best one; self preservation, the need for food, the first rudimentary tools to help kill for food (and then used maybe in defense, when someone tried to deprive the one with the food of his catch).

I can then imagine our insatiable curiosity took over, and we started 'discovering'.

All of the above are tools for self preservation - and that is the prime motivator in man.