Panpsychism (Evolution)

by hyjyljyj , Thursday, December 13, 2012, 15:20 (4362 days ago) @ dhw
edited by unknown, Thursday, December 13, 2012, 15:28

dhw: I'm surprised you can't conceive of intelligence without self-analysis, as this seems to be the rule rather than the exception with most of our fellow animals. Think of the feats of engineering by spiders, ants, bees, birds, beavers ... all astonishing examples of intelligent design ... the intelligent actions of dogs, crows, dolphins, the list of Nature's Wonders...Are you now saying that all these creatures are self-aware? Similarly, I suggest that the cell communities which fight disease, digest our food and drink, enable us to keep our species going etc. etc. also perform intelligent actions without self-analysis.-In your post, you are equating consciousness with self-consciousness, but in my posts I am distinguishing between DEGREES of consciousness (we assume that a spider/ant/dog etc. is LESS conscious than a man), selfconsciousness being an extreme degree of consciousness. This approach lies at the heart of panpsychism as I understand it. -This has the rudiments of making sense to me, although I still have this question about cellular metabolism being a de facto indication of intelligence/consciousness belonging to the cell. It could in fact be just that, after all; on the other hand, if something HAS TO function in a certain way due to its form--lesson 1, day 1 of Physiology 101--then need it be intelligent at all? Is it not on auto-pilot? If the cells forming the small intestinal villi, e.g., are shaped and pre-programmed to behave in only one specific fashion when in contact with food particles, cannot refuse to act, and cannot choose or be made to act in some other fashion, then are they not essentially automatons, requiring no actual intelligence to perform their programs? Nobody would claim that the mechanical robots in a car factory that pick up parts, paint them and then assemble them gently are either conscious of it or are doing so out of intelligence; the intelligence lies wholly in the minds that designed them. Why this should automatically cease being the case whenever the molecules comprising the robots themselves are organic ones rather than inorganic is unclear to me. Although, I guess the answer would be that the inorganic and organic robots ARE equivalent in consciousness or intelligence, in that both operate on a more or less similar, subhuman level of it. Maybe we'll never know...