Titel
The Metaphysics of Living Consciousness: Metabolism, Agency and Purposiveness
Autor*in
Abstract
Life has evolved; and so must have consciousness, or subjective experience, as found in living beings, Eva Jablonka and Simona Ginsburg contend. In their target article, which summarises the main theses of their seminal book The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul, the authors put forward an evolutionary account of consciousness that builds upon the intimate connection between consciousness and life without, however, equating the two. Instead, according to Jablonka & Ginsburg, there was life before there was consciousness, and there are still living beings without consciousness. Here I offer some metaphysical considerations in favour of a more inclusive notion of consciousness than Jablonka & Ginsburg’s. These considerations turn on the role played by metabolism and agency in the processual constitution of living beings as well as on the continuum between sensation and perception. Rather than postulating a mindless inwardness in presumably non-conscious organisms, we ought to recognise the constitutive experiential nature of life, rooted in its intrinsic purposiveness.
Stichwort
ConsciousnessSubjective experienceMetabolismAgencyPurposivenessPerception
Objekt-Typ
Sprache
Englisch [eng]
Persistent identifier
phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:1971402
Erschienen in
Titel
Biosemiotics
Band
16
Ausgabe
2
ISSN
1875-1342
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Seitenanfang
281
Seitenende
290
Publication
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Fördergeber
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Zugänglichkeit
Rechte
Rechteangabe
© The Author(s) 2023
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