Animal Consciousness

elective courses

Biological Bases of Behavior 2500-EN_O_05

n Animal consciousness remains an elusive and controversial phenomenon.

From the Darwinian point of view, consciousness is a product of long

lasting evolutionary process. In the course of our meetings, we will travel

across various approaches, theories and research papers, in order to

figure out the contemporary views, controversies and proven facts, about

the development, and evolution of various forms of animal

consciousness.

Animal consciousness remains an elusive and controversial phenomenon.

It is debated by philosophers, psychologists, and more recently by

evolutionary biologists. From the Darwinian point of view, consciousness

is a product of long lasting evolutionary process. In the course of our

meetings, we will travel across various approaches, theories and research

papers, in order to figure out the contemporary views, controversies and

proven facts, about the development, and evolution of various forms of

animal consciousness.

* Bayne, T., Hohwy, J., & Owen, A. M. (2016). Are There Levels of Consciousness? Trends in Cognitive

Sciences, xx, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.03.009

* Earl, B. (2014). The biological function of consciousness. Frontiers in Psychology, 5(August), 1–18.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00697

* Feinberg, T. E., & Mallatt, J. (2016). The nature of primary consciousness. A new synthesis.

Consciousness and Cognition, 43, 113–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2016.05.009

* Grinde, B. (2012). The Evolutionary Rationale for Consciousness. Biological Theory, 7(3), 227–236.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0061-3

* Harley, H. E. (2013). Consciousness in dolphins? A review of recent evidence. Journal of

Comparative Physiology. A, Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology,

199(6), 565–82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-013-0816-8

* Key, B. (2015). Fish do not feel pain and its implications for understanding phenomenal

consciousness. Biology and Philosophy, 30(2), 149–165. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-

014-9469-4

* Morin, A. (2006). Levels of consciousness and self-awareness: A comparison and integration of

various neurocognitive views. Consciousness and Cognition, 15(2), 358–71.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2005.09.006

* Natsoulas, T. (1978). Consciousness. American Psychologist, OCT(October), 906–914.

* Natsoulas, T. (1983). Concepts of Consciousness. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 4(1), 13–59.

* Pisula, W. (2016). Levels of Consciousness. Open Journal of Philosophy, 6(1), 51–58.

https://doi.org/10.4236/ojpp.2016.61006

Block, N. (2007). Consciousness, accessibility, and the mesh between psychology and neuroscience.

The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30(5–6), 481–548.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X07002786

Blumenfeld, H. (2016). Neuroanatomical basis of Consciousness. In The Neurology of Conciousness

(pp. 3–29). Elsevier Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-800948-2.00001-7

Edelman, G. M., Gally, J. A., & Baars, B. J. (2011). Biology of consciousness. Frontiers in Psychology, 2,

4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00004

Gross, M. (2013). Elements of consciousness in animals. Current Biology, 23(22), R981–R983.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.10.078

Helminian, D. (2015). Clarifying the conception of consciousness: Lonergan, Chalmers, and

confounded epistemology. Dialogues in Philosophy, Mental and Neuro Sciences, 8(2), 59–74.

Henke, K., Reber, T. P., & Duss, S. B. (2013). Integrating events across levels of consciousness.

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 7(June), 68.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00068

Meacham, B. (2016). Don’t Say “Consciousness”: Toward a Uniform Vocabulary of Subjectivity.

Sociology and Anthropology, 4(12), 1099–1107. https://doi.org/10.13189/sa.2016.041209

Meyer, R. E. (2015). Physiologic measures of animal stress during transitional states of consciousness.

Animals, 5(3), 702–716. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani5030380

Navajas, J., Rey, H. G., & Quian Quiroga, R. (2014). Perceptual and contextual awareness:

methodological considerations in the search for the neural correlates of consciousness.

Frontiers in Psychology, 5(August), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00959

Panksepp, J. (2010). Affective consciousness in animals: perspectives on dimensional and primary

process emotion approaches. Proceedings. Biological Sciences / The Royal Society,

277(1696), 2905–7. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.1017

Paulson, S., Chalmers, D., Kahneman, D., Santos, L., & Schiff, N. (2013). The thinking ape: the enigma

of human consciousness. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1303(1), 4–23;

discussion 24. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.12165

Wilber, K. (1979). A developmental view of consciousness. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 11(1),

1–21.

Zeki, S. (2003). The disunity of consciousness. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(5), 214–218.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00081-0

Zeman, A., & Coebergh, J. A. (2013). The nature of consciousness. In J. Bernat & R. Beresford (Eds.),

Handbook of Clinical Neurology, vol. 118, (3rd series). Ethical and Legal Issues in Neurology (pp. 373–

406). Elsevier B.V.

Knowledge: students will learn about the main approaches to the

problem of animal consciousness, especially these originating from

empirical sciences

One class may be missed without excuse. Further absences are permitted

only with a formal excuse. More than 3 absence result in course failure.

Assessment is based on a short paper and a written exam at the end of

the course. The exam makes up 50% of the final grade and the paper the

other 50%. The exam consists of two open questions on the readings from

the list marked as important with an "*". The answers are supposed not

to exceed 150 words.