Monday, April 17, 2023 5:30pm to 7:30pm
About this Event
Bowen-Thompson Student Union 1001 E Wooster St , Bowling Green, OH 43402
Learning and the Origins of Consciousness:
A Neurophilosophical-Evolutionary Approach
Dr. Eva Jablonka
The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel-Aviv University; Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics and Political Science
I present an evolutionary approach, developed by Simona Ginsburg and myself, for studying basic consciousness. I explain the rationale and methodology underlying this approach and then put forward our proposal that the marker of the evolutionary transition to basic consciousness, which requires that all the characteristics assumed to be sufficient for minimal consciousness are in place, is a domain-general, representational form of associative learning that we call unlimited associative learning (UAL). I discuss the implications of this hypothesis for questions pertaining to the neural dynamics that constitute minimal consciousness, to its taxonomic distribution and to the ecological context in which it first emerged. I end by pointing to some of the ways in which the relationship between UAL and consciousness can be experimentally tested in human and in non-human animals.
Light Refreshments at 5:30 p.m.
Lecture at 6 p.m.
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