CONSCIOUSNESS AND BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

It has been suggested that if the preservation and development of cons ciousness in the biological evolution is a result of natural selection , it is plausible that consciousness not only has been influenced by n eural processes, but has had a survival value itself; and it could onl y have had this, if it had also been efficacious. This argument for mi nd-brain interaction is examined, both as the argument has been develo ped by William James and Karl Popper and as it has been discussed by C . D. Broad. The problem of identifying mental phenomena with certain n eural phenomena is also addressed. The main conclusion of the analysis is that an explanation of the evolution of consciousness in Darwinian terms of natural selection does not rule out that consciousness may h ave evolved as a mere causally inert effect of the evolution of the ne rvous system, or that mental phenomena are identical with certain neur al phenomena. However, the interactionistic theory still seems, more p lausible and more fruitful for other reasons brought up in the discuss ion. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.