Philosophy of Mind

Fall 2019

Consciousness Explained, Problem Set 6, Chapter 7 (First Half)

Answer each using your reading of Dennett as your guide.

1. What is the analogy between the evolution of sex and the evolution of consciousness, and
what point does Dennett want to pull from the analogy?

Dennett states that in the same way we recognize the reproduction of things like flowers or bees,
we do not find anything about it particularly “sexy”, we can recognize the primitive precursors of
consciousness while not thinking that there is any “self” there. He takes this to mean that
consciousness arose from several evolutionary steps layered on top of each other, not all at once.

2. In the beginning, Dennett says, nothing had interests, and then with the emergence of
replicators, “interests” emerged. What are those interests, and what does it mean to say
that the simple selfish replicators had a “point of view”?

Before the first simple life, or “replicators” as Dennett calls them, there were no interests, just
causes, as there was nothing to hold any interests in the first place. When replicators first came
into being, with our higher point of view, assign them interests. These creatures had an interest
dictated by their very nature, they were interested in replicating, even if they were not conscious of
that interest. Once something has interests, it begins to develop a point of view, as there are things
that help you achieve your interests, and those that do not. This creates a point of view of the
things that are good and bad for the replicator.

3. What does Dennett mean (on 174) when he says that “…as the creature thus comes to have
interests, the world and its events begin creating reasons for it – whether or not the
creature can fully recognize them.” What does Dennett mean by “a reason” here and how
can a reason exist that a creature does not recognize?

A reason is something that informs a decision by a creature. For example, bacteria use chemotaxis
to find food. They do this because if they do not, the bacteria will die, but obviously, the bacteria is
not aware of this reasoning, it just does it.

4. Explain (briefly) the evolutionary process that led eventually to what Dennett calls the
emergence of the “informavores” (pg. 181).

He believes our information-hungry modern posture arose from our response to alarm signals,
where we would scan the environment for possible threats. As time went on, we maintained this
posture of heightened awareness for greater and greater periods of time, and eventually kept it on
almost constantly, as gathering as much information as possible to give us an edge up in any given
situation proved to be extremely effective as a survival tactic.
 5. What is the Baldwin Effect, why is it so valuable for human evolution, and how is it related
to the plasticity of the brain?

The Baldwin effect is the idea that the ability of a creature to learn new behaviors will have a major
effect on its reproductive success, as opposed to genetically coded instinctual abilities. This is
related to brain plasticity, as that is the ability of the brain to rewire itself throughout the life of an
organism based on outside stimuli. Higher brain plasticity is linked with learning new behaviors, so
high brain plasticity is needed to use the Baldwin effect to its greatest extent.

6. How does Dennett explain the emergence of language in humans?

Language emerged as a product of natural selection, where tribes of proto-humans more able to
communicate with each other had a selective advantage over those tribes with more crude forms
of communication.

7. What is “auto-stimulation” and what benefits did it confer to the human organism?

Auto-stimulation is the act of responding to your own conscious actions in a conscious manner,
such as asking yourself a question. He believes that this can take information that you already
possess in an isolated subsystem of consciousness, and broadcast that information to the
consciousness as a whole, where it can be picked up by a subsystem more capable of using it
effectively.