METAZOA: Animal Minds and the Birth of Consciousness

The nature of Consciousness is a much-disputed subject among scientists and in this unusual take on the issue a scuba-diving professor of science approaches the subject through his and other people's observations of the most primitive life-forms. The author takes a position of biological materialism, in which mental phenomena, including subjective experience, are controlled by biology, chemistry and physics. His task is to describe evolutionary development in terms that explain how it led to beings with minds. He examines the concept of consciousness, explaining that evolutionary processes can organise themselves in such a way as to give rise to felt experience. He looks at the way a sponge uses light, the ways a shrimp uses its banded feelers, or antennae, and discusses what we mean by sensory information, including pain, in terms of crustaceans. A fascinating book combining philosophy with zoology. 336pp, colour photos.