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The origin and function of pleasure
1a New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, USA.
Cognition & Emotion
|May 3, 2018
Summary
Conscious experiences like pleasure are not mere software but evolved biological functions. Evolutionary functionalism suggests natural selection shaped our brains to value these feelings for survival.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Neuroscience
- Evolutionary Psychology
Background:
- Dominant view: brain as a computer, mind as software.
- Conscious feelings (e.g., pleasure) deemed functionally irrelevant to behavior control.
- Critique of computational theories based on sensory perception of the external world.
Purpose of the Study:
- Propose evolutionary functionalism as an alternative to computational theories.
- Reframe conscious experiences as evolved biological properties.
- Investigate the functional role of feelings and sensations in shaping neural architecture.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual analysis of existing cognitive theories.
- Development of the evolutionary functionalism framework.
- Exploration of natural selection's role in shaping consciousness.
Main Results:
- The external world is energy/matter, not just sensory data.
- Conscious experiences (pleasure, pain) are emergent properties of biological tissue.
- Natural selection favors biologically relevant conscious evaluations and discriminations.
Conclusions:
- Conscious feelings and sensations are functionally useful, not epiphenomenal.
- Evolutionary pressures have shaped neural architecture based on the utility of these emergent properties.
- Evolutionary functionalism offers a biologically grounded perspective on consciousness and behavior.
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