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Did Consciousness Evolve from Self-Paced Probing of the Environment, and Not from Reflexes?

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Brain and Mind

Abstract

It is suggested that the anatomical structures whichmediate consciousness evolved as decisiveembellishments to a (non-conscious) design strategypresent even in the simplest monocellular organisms.Consciousness is thus not the pinnacle of ahierarchy whose base is the primitive reflex, becausereflexes require a nervous system, which the monocelldoes not possess. By postulating that consciousness isintimately connected to self-paced probing of theenvironment, also prominent in prokaryotic behavior,one can make mammalian neuroanatomy amenable todramatically simple rationalization.

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    Rodney M. J. Cotterill

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Cotterill, R.M.J. Did Consciousness Evolve from Self-Paced Probing of the Environment, and Not from Reflexes?. Brain and Mind 1, 283–298 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010016322550

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