Health, consciousness, and the evolution of subjects.
Synthese 2023 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-022-03998-z (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Consciousness Darwinism Health Organisms Pathological complexity |
| Citations | 20 |
| Key points | Argues that health and consciousness are interconnected and can be jointly understood as natural phenomena through an evolutionary perspective using state-based behavioral and life-history theory. |
Abstract
The goal of this programmatic paper is to highlight a close connection between the core problem in the philosophy of medicine, i.e. the concept of health, and the core problem of the philosophy of mind, i.e. the concept of consciousness. I show when we look at these phenomena together, taking the evolutionary perspective of modern state-based behavioural and life-history theory used as the teleonomic tool to Darwinize the agent- and subject-side of organisms, we will be in a better position to make sense of them both as natural phenomena.