09.11.09
Epiphenomenalism
The problem of consciousness is one that materialism hasn’t been able to solve. The most popular explanation is Epiphenomenalism — that consciousness is just a by-product of the physical activity of our brains. It has no causal efficacy in and of itself. This seems to be a problem when we consider the most popular explanation of how we got here — Darwinian evolution. According to that theory, we are the product of a blind process that favored organisms that could survive and reproduce more effectively than their competitors.
It is a remarkable situation: the mainstream of science is stuck on the issue of consciousness/evolution and can’t even acknowledge that there is a problem.
Stephen P. Smith said,
September 12, 2009 at 12:38 pm
If evolution was simply a matter of reproductive fitness then bacteria would be the fittest and there would be no reason of the complex expressions of the epiphenomenalist. Life`s complexity went unanticipated by Darwin`s theory.
Darwiniana » Comment: epiphenomenalism said,
September 13, 2009 at 2:33 pm
[...] Comment on Epiphenomenalism Stephen P. Smith said, September 12, 2009 at 12:38 pm · If evolution was simply a matter of reproductive fitness then bacteria would be the fittest and there would be no reason of the complex expressions of the epiphenomenalist. Life`s complexity went unanticipated by Darwin`s theory. [...]