(January 21, 2014 at 7:22 am)Bad Wolf Wrote: Thats a rather simplistic view of consciousness. And a pretty low standard too .So by your standards, the nematode isn't conscious but the rats and mice are?
None of those are conscious because none of them are self aware. They don't understand themselves as an individual or have thoughts. They don't recognise themselves in mirrors. The only animals to do this, as far as i'm aware, are chimps, dolphins and elephants. Those animals are conscious and able to experience fear and distress by other ways than just instinct and conditioning.
Yes there is no reason to assume nematodes are conscious.
If one has binding of sensory experience, and is able to form new presentations of the world from multiple sensory inputs, then how can one not be conscious? I really don't see how self awareness is relevant, all one needs to be conscious is to be aware of external events, not to have conception of what one's self is and then be able to make a comparison between what oneself is and what one perceives. That conception of oneself, and that comparison are additional to being able to be conscious of the external world, therefore one can be conscious without being self aware.
