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Related Concept Videos

Empathy02:34

Empathy

Some researchers suggest that altruism operates on empathy. Empathy is the capacity to understand another person’s perspective, to feel what he or she feels. An empathetic person makes an emotional connection with others and feels compelled to help (Batson, 1991). Empathy can be expressed in several ways, including cognitive, affective, and motor.
Perception01:28

Perception

Perception is a fundamental psychological process that enables individuals to organize, interpret, and consciously experience sensory information. This process is crucial for understanding and interacting with the world around us. It includes both bottom-up and top-down processing, each playing a distinct role in how we perceive our environment.
Bottom-up processing begins at the sensory level, where receptors detect external environmental stimuli. These could include the tactile sensation of...
Factors Affecting Perception01:25

Factors Affecting Perception

Perception is influenced by perceptual set, context, motivation, and emotion. Perceptual set, or perceptual expectancy, refers to the tendency to perceive things in a particular way, influenced by previous experiences and expectations. This phenomenon affects the interpretation of stimuli, creating a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that impact sensory perceptions of sound, taste, touch, and sight.
An illustrative example of a perceptual set is the scenario where an airline pilot told...
Introducing Social Perception01:29

Introducing Social Perception

Perceiving others accurately is fundamental to effective communication and relationship-building. Social perception, a key concept in social psychology, refers to the cognitive processes through which individuals gather and interpret information about others to understand their actions, intentions, and motivations. This process extends beyond spoken words and overt behaviors, incorporating subtle nonverbal cues and contextual factors.Nonverbal Cues and Their SignificanceNonverbal cues play a...
Understanding Consciousness01:23

Understanding Consciousness

Consciousness can be defined as the state of being aware of and able to think about one's existence, sensations, and surroundings. It encompasses two major components: awareness and arousal. Awareness pertains to the recognition of environmental stimuli and internal states. At the same time, arousal refers to the physiological readiness to engage with these stimuli, which varies significantly between states like sleep and wakefulness.
Sleep, a crucial state, is characterized by reduced physical...
Self-Awareness and Its Effects01:21

Self-Awareness and Its Effects

Self-awareness is a psychological state in which the individual becomes the focal point of their attention. This inward focus transforms the self into an object of contemplation and assessment, influencing how individuals perceive their actions and their alignment with personal and societal standards.Triggers and Contexts for Self-AwarenessSelf-awareness can be activated by external stimuli that make individuals visually or audibly aware of themselves, such as mirrors, cameras, or recordings.

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Updated: May 12, 2026

Characterization of the Sense of Agency over the Actions of Neural-machine Interface-operated Prostheses
05:21

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Published on: January 7, 2019

Sentience. Not Necessarily a Problem?

Karim Akerma1

  • 1Independent author.

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics : CQ : the International Journal of Healthcare Ethics Committees
|May 11, 2026
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

The first sensations in life

Keywords:
antinatalismevolutionneutral sensationpainprimitive consciousness

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Neuroscience
  • Philosophy of mind

Background:

  • Pain is considered vital for self-preservation.
  • The evolutionary origin of sensation is debated.
  • Teleological explanations for evolutionary properties are fallacious.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To question the assumption that pain was the first evolutionary sensation.
  • To explore alternative origins of sensation in early life.
  • To examine the role of consciousness in primitive self-preservation.

Main Methods:

  • Philosophical inquiry into evolutionary principles.
  • Analysis of the emergence of biological properties.
  • Consideration of consciousness in non-complex organisms.

Main Results:

  • Evolutionary properties arise from mutation and selection, not need.
  • Early sensations may have been neutral or pleasant, not necessarily painful.
  • Self-preservation in simple organisms might not require consciousness.

Conclusions:

  • The first sensation in evolution was not necessarily pain.
  • Primitive consciousness, if present, may be limited to neutral or pleasant sensations.
  • These findings impact moral theories concerning antinatalism.