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The Evolution of Consciousness

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Abstract

For consciousness to be experienced in a hitherto mindless world there had to be a neocortex that was greatly evolved, as it came to be in the mammalian brain, even of the primitive insectivores (Figure 7.3). The contrast with the reptilian brain (Figure 7.4) and the avian brain (Figure 7.5) revealed the mammalian evolution to a neocortex and so to consciousness, which is the most wonderful happening of the whole evolutionary story. This is only slowly being appreciated after the long dark night of behaviourism and materialism, as described in this chapter, and also by Searle (1992) (see Chapter 3.9).

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Eccles, J.C. (1994). The Evolution of Consciousness. In: How the SELF Controls Its BRAIN. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-49224-2_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-49224-2_7

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