Perspectives on the Cognitive Unconscious
António R. Damásio
Abstract
Abstract Small and simple organisms such as bacteria, behave more or less intelligently from the standpoint of their survival. The actions they adopt have “different values” or “valences” depending on how successful they are relative to maintaining life. And yet, “valenced” actions do not need to be “conscious” actions. Nothing whatsoever suggests that the problems those organisms face, the actions they take, or their results, can be represented inside their organisms let alone experienced in some form of mental state. Valences do not need to be experienced to produce their results. Covert, nonconscious intelligences are part of an early stage in the evolution of living organisms and do not require nervous systems to operate. At a later stage, when nervous systems are present, valenced options for actions can be experienced as homeostatic feelings, thus introducing an evolutionary novelty: conscious life regulation, based on subjective knowledge concerning the life state.