[Consciousness][Damasio] Feelings are the source of consciousness

Feb 19, 2023

An interesting paper on consciousness by Antonio Damasio and Hanna Damasio, very well-known in the field.

Quote:

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We hypothesize that the automatic identification that associates minds and organisms is provided by a continuous flow of homeostatic feelings. Those feelings arise from the uninterrupted process of life regulation and correspond to both salient physiological fluctuations such as hunger, pain, well-being, or malaise, as well as to states closer to metabolic equilibrium and best described as feelings of life/existence, such as breathing or body temperature.

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The unusual physiological features that enable feelings, and thus consciousness, depend on the presence of a nervous system but not on an isolated nervous system. Organisms without nervous systems, capable of taking intelligent actions to regulate their lives but not able to represent such actions or their consequences, appear to be nonconscious. Their intelligences are covert. But conscious organisms such as ours are remarkably different: (1) they are able to represent in mind the actions they take as well as their consequences, (2) they have feelings, and (3) they can overtly represent the consequences of those feelings (Damasio, 2018).

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Choe: Emphasis on seeking consciousness not in the isolated brain, and on the sensorimotor (both external and internalized) aspect are spot on!

Nicholas Humphrey’s book “A History of the Mind” (1992) also laid out similar ideas.

https://direct.mit.edu/neco/article/35/3/277/112379/Feelings-Are-the-Source-of-Consciousness

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