Chapter 21 - The evolution of consciousness

Summary

Consciousness itself is almost certainly not unique to humans. This chapter argues that the embracing characteristic that distinguishes aspects of human cognition from that of other species is recursion. Recursion is a mathematical device for generating terms in a sequence, where the rule for generating the next term in a sequence involves one or more of the preceding terms. The chapter explains that the claim that only humans are capable of recursion does not mean that other animals do not possess consciousness. However, it is still something of an open question whether the great apes can achieve first-order intentionality. It also talks about the more complex, social aspects of consciousness such as thoughts, perceptions, and feelings. The chapter claims that at least some of these are uniquely human. It argues that syntactic language emerged gradually over the preceding 2 million years, in concert with the development of recursive thought.