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4 The Animal Sensorium
channel had to evolve in tandem with the senses, for the senses would serve
no purpose if the information they captured had no way of being received and
“understood” by the brain.
The evolution of internal communication systems within living organisms is
perhaps the most fascinating chapter of evolutionary biology. The physiological
mechanisms of communication in the nervous system are electrochemical, but
these physiological processes are doubled by sensory processes in the mind.
Modern science is unable to explain how electrical activity in a brain gives
rise to sensations. However, incoming sensory information is registered in the
mind in the language of feeling. Information in the mind—as opposed to the
brain—is in the medium of sensation.
A living creature is not aware of neural events in the brain, but is aware
only of the sensory events which they cause. Sensation is the medium in which
all conscious activity unfolds. Sensation is nonmaterial, though produced
by material means. Although it is nonmaterial, sensation is like a soft
clay that can be sculpted in the myriad forms of feelings, wishes, thoughts and
ideas. You may think of sensation as feeling-matter, because everything mental
is fashioned out of it.
The signaling system between the environment and the conscious brain is
based on sensation: No message can find its way into the animal mind unless
the message is sensory, for evolution has devised this one and only medium to
carry information into awareness. This fact is hugely important, and when
understood clearly, it dispels a great many common misconception about the
mind.
The expression “mental contents” refers to all things that may be present in
awareness, such as percepts, feelings, ideas, thoughts, beliefs and so on. Until
recently, it was generally accepted that mental contents are of two different
kinds: Some are sensory, while others are analytic, or as they’re usually called,
propositional. A sensory content is something you experience by feeling—for
example a pain, the color red, or the shape of a flower vase. In contrast, a propositional content is a factual claim such as “Paris is the capital of France”. It can
be precisely expressed in words, and that is the reason it is called propositional.
It is stored in mind as a gestalt, but is so structured that it is easily transformed
into a series of words.
In our time, linguists and philosophers no longer believe there is a hardand-fast dichotomy between sensory and propositional contents of mind. In
fact, everything that can be “known” by a mind has to be sensory. The only
way an event can register in your awareness is if it is a sensation and is felt in
your mind. It must be “visible” to the mind, and must make it into awareness.
Sensation is the medium in which all information reaches awareness.
4 The Animal Sensorium
channel had to evolve in tandem with the senses, for the senses would serve
no purpose if the information they captured had no way of being received and
“understood” by the brain.
The evolution of internal communication systems within living organisms is
perhaps the most fascinating chapter of evolutionary biology. The physiological
mechanisms of communication in the nervous system are electrochemical, but
these physiological processes are doubled by sensory processes in the mind.
Modern science is unable to explain how electrical activity in a brain gives
rise to sensations. However, incoming sensory information is registered in the
mind in the language of feeling. Information in the mind—as opposed to the
brain—is in the medium of sensation.
A living creature is not aware of neural events in the brain, but is aware
only of the sensory events which they cause. Sensation is the medium in which
all conscious activity unfolds. Sensation is nonmaterial, though produced
by material means. Although it is nonmaterial, sensation is like a soft
clay that can be sculpted in the myriad forms of feelings, wishes, thoughts and
ideas. You may think of sensation as feeling-matter, because everything mental
is fashioned out of it.
The signaling system between the environment and the conscious brain is
based on sensation: No message can find its way into the animal mind unless
the message is sensory, for evolution has devised this one and only medium to
carry information into awareness. This fact is hugely important, and when
understood clearly, it dispels a great many common misconception about the
mind.
The expression “mental contents” refers to all things that may be present in
awareness, such as percepts, feelings, ideas, thoughts, beliefs and so on. Until
recently, it was generally accepted that mental contents are of two different
kinds: Some are sensory, while others are analytic, or as they’re usually called,
propositional. A sensory content is something you experience by feeling—for
example a pain, the color red, or the shape of a flower vase. In contrast, a propositional content is a factual claim such as “Paris is the capital of France”. It can
be precisely expressed in words, and that is the reason it is called propositional.
It is stored in mind as a gestalt, but is so structured that it is easily transformed
into a series of words.
In our time, linguists and philosophers no longer believe there is a hardand-fast dichotomy between sensory and propositional contents of mind. In
fact, everything that can be “known” by a mind has to be sensory. The only
way an event can register in your awareness is if it is a sensation and is felt in
your mind. It must be “visible” to the mind, and must make it into awareness.
Sensation is the medium in which all information reaches awareness.