Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
November 13, 2025
Nicholas Humphrey
1 citation
In the history of life, consciousness of sensory states with 'phenomenal properties'-the basis of 'sentience'-is, arguably, a late evolutionary development, which occurred long after conscious access to a 'global mental workspace' had become widely established as a strategy for cognitive information processing. In this article, I focus on phenomenal consciousness. I propose a step-by-step...
Cerebral Cortex
January 8, 2025
Beatrice De Gelder, Nicholas Humphrey, Alan J Pegna
9 citations
Blindsight refers to the ability to make accurate visual discriminations without conscious awareness of the stimuli. In this study, we present new evidence from naturalistic observations of a patient with bilateral damage to the striate cortex, who surprisingly demonstrated the ability to detect colored objects, particularly red ones. Despite the slow and effortful process, the patient reported...
Philosophy of Science and Technology
October 23, 2024
Nicholas Humphrey
The lecturer puts forward a thesis according to which an evolutionist approach to consciousness can solve its “hard problem” with radical implications for understanding of animal sentience. Taking off from his discovery of blindsight – insentient vision – after removal of the visual cortex in a monkey, named Helen, Humphrey argues that “phenomenal consciousness” is a relatively late...
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
January 2018
Nicholas Humphrey
Singh's analysis has much to be said for it. When considering the treatment of illness, however, he begins from a shaky premise about uncontrollability and, so, fails to make the most of what shamanic treatments - as placebos - can deliver.
Topoi
August 9, 2017
Nicholas Humphrey
20 citations
In English we use the word “invention” in two ways. First, to mean a new device or process developed by experimentation, and designed to fulfill a practical goal. Second, to mean a mental fabrication, especially a falsehood, designed to please or persuade. In this paper I argue that human consciousness is an invention in both respects. First, it is a cognitive faculty, evolved by natural...
Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplement
2008
Nicholas Humphrey
2 citations
The hard problem of consciousness is to explain the experience of qualia. But everything gets easier once we realise that what has to be explained is not how qualia can exist as objective entities but rather why the conscious subject should believe that they exist. This essay lays out a programme for doing this. It makes radical proposals as to how the “qualia illusion” is created, and why...
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
April 1, 2007
Nicholas Humphrey
Human beings are not only the most sociable animals on Earth, but also the only animals that have to ponder the separateness that comes with having a conscious self. The philosophical problem of 'other minds' nags away at people's sense of who--and why--they are. But the privacy of consciousness has an evolutionary history--and maybe even an evolutionary function. While recognizing the...