1st Edition
The Origins of Consciousness Thoughts of the Crooked-Headed Fly
The Origins of Consciousness challenges the dominant view that consciousness is an emergent property of the complex human brain.
Based on his pioneering research on a variety of organisms, Vallortigara argues that the most basic forms of mental life do not require large brains, and that the neurological surplus observed in some animals such as humans is likely at the service of memory storage, not of the processes of thought or, even less, of consciousness. The book argues for a simple neural mechanism that can provide the crucial event that brings into effect the minimum condition for subjective experience. Implications of the hypothesis for the appearance of consciousness in different organisms are discussed, as well as links with a variety of fascinating human phenomena such as disorders of consciousness, tickling, and visual illusions.
Challenging widely accepted theories of consciousness, the book is a must-read for students and researchers of human and animal consciousness.
Introduction 1. Earthworm Consciousness 2. Robinson, the Caterpillar and the Butterfly 3. The Most Interesting Surface on Earth 4. A Brain for All Seasons 5. Faces, Flowers and Profiles 6. Faces of Memory 7. Big Concepts for Small Brains 8. Information Lies in Differences, and Other Fundamental Principles 9. Neurons Great and Small, in Variously Crowded Spaces 10. The Boundaries of Intelligence 11. A Minimalist Approach to the Issue of Consciousness 12. The Scent of the Rose 13. Primum Movens 14. Early Animals, Early Neurons 15. The Crooked-Headed Fly 16. Imminence of a Revelation 17. Experience, in Brief 18. Hearing the Song of the Cricket That Is not There 19. Tickling Yourself 20. The Corollary Discharge of Thought 21. Feeling and Cogitating 22. Traces of Feeling 23. And So...
Biography
Giorgio Vallortigara is Professor of Neuroscience and Animal Cognition at the University of Trento, Italy. He previously taught at the University of Trieste and was Adjunct Professor at the School of Biological, Biomedical and Molecular Sciences at the University of New England in Australia.
‘This book by Prof. Vallortigara is a tour de force of a lateral thinker who uses poetry, philosophy, psychology in conjunction with some razor-sharp science to entertain and make us think about such an ephemeral topic as consciousness. His stunning claim: consciousness is present in insects and started when organisms began moving about and had to differentiate between themselves and an external world. Plenty to think about and highly original, erudite, and persuasive.’
Professor Gisela Kaplan, AM University of Queensland, Australia
‘Vallortigara writes like a poet but can think like a fly. His book is a wonderful introduction to the minds of animals with small brains but big horizons. He asks: if so much can be achieved with so little, what can be the advantage of having a massive brain like ours? He proposes a brilliant answer to the question of how – and why – awareness has evolved in some animals to become self-awareness.’
Nicholas Humphrey, Darwin College, Cambridge, UK
‘Drawing on the author’s extensive knowledge and written in an engaging style, this book presents a new perspective on consciousness. By extending the boundaries of conscious sensation well beyond Homo sapiens to consider the abilities of much smaller and simpler organisms, it sheds new light on a much-debated topic.’
Professor Lesley J. Rogers, University of New England, Australia
