Our Social Survival was Consciousness

Key Facts:

• Social Purpose: Consciousness evolved to facilitate social interactions and communication.
• Intuition’s Role: Intuitive beliefs shape our understanding of consciousness, often complicating scientific explanations.
• Species Benefit: Subjective awareness helps broadcast ideas and emotions, benefiting species survival and wellbeing.

Source: The Conversation

Why did the experience of consciousness evolve from our underlying brain physiology? Despite being a vibrant area of neuroscience, current research on consciousness is characterised by disagreement and controversy – with several rival theories in contention.

A recent scoping review of over 1,000 articles identified over 20 different theoretical accounts. Philosophers like David Chalmers argue that no single scientific theory can truly explain consciousness.

We define consciousness as embodied subjective awareness, including self awareness. In a recent article published in Interalia (which is not peer reviewed), we argue that one reason for this predicament is the powerful role played by intuition.


We are not alone. Social scientist Jacy Reese Anthis writes “much of the debate on the fundamental nature of consciousness takes the form of intuition jousting, in which the different parties each report their own strong intuitions and joust them against each other”.         READ MORE...