FanFare

In Sentience, Nicholas Humphrey distills a lifetime of study of consciousness to give a picture of how he thinks it works to be sentient--that is, to be someone for whom a sensation can be personally meaningful. From monkeys with blindsight to gorillas with nothing to think about but each other, he ranges across the research to come to a conclusion he calls qualiaphilia...consciousness becomes important because it makes life worth living, makes possible empathy, and is apparently quite attractive to potential mates. Having given us a sense of what it means to have a sense of something, he goes on to ask: Who else? Are animals sentient as well? [more inside]
posted by mittens on Nov 12, 2023 - 3 comments