Thursday, September 18, 2008

In reaction to a statement in a psychology journal article that, though it pertains to consciousness from an adaptationist point of view, is still absurd; "No one yet knows what the function of consciousness is" (Haselton & Funder, 2004):

Consciousness is a prerequisite to human emotion, belief, and understanding: consciousness, essentially, is the ability to discern, and the foundation for accessing everything that is worthwhile. While the article doesn't explicitly question the importance of consciousness, it seems a blaspheme to bring into question the utility of something we know to be central to our lives: it marks the difference between merely existing, and living. Scientific validity versus human experience...it reminds me of the light in which religion was shown in the movie Contact.

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