- #1
Steve Esser
- 52
- 1
I wanted to see if any of you had thoughts on the following: our feelings and emotions appear to be markers of old evolutionary imperatives (fight, flee, eat, etc.). The mind/body debate in philosophy got started before evolutionary theory was accepted (Descartes evidently thought animals were automata). Given we now better understand our close relationship with our non-verbal animal cousins, I am persuaded that animals have first-person experiences of a sort, probably much like our more primitive feelings.
If so, then the “hard problem” can be seen as the challenge of accounting for first-person experience in natural systems more broadly than just the human case; the issue can be seen as distinct from others relating to human intelligence and language.
If so, then the “hard problem” can be seen as the challenge of accounting for first-person experience in natural systems more broadly than just the human case; the issue can be seen as distinct from others relating to human intelligence and language.