What if Consciousness has no Function?
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The priority placed on adaptive explanations goes back to Darwin's time and persists today.
“The priority placed on adaptive explanations goes back to Darwin’s time, with Darwin’s protegee, J. G. Romanes, writing:”
From Consciousness at sea (2025) · cites this paper as [34]
Cites
The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: a critique of the adaptationist programme
Gould, S. J., & Lewontin, R. C. (1979) · Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.1979.0086 · Cited by 7,770 · see citing works
Nagel, T. (1974) · The Philosophical Review · doi:10.2307/2183914 · Cited by 7,440 · see citing works
Journal of Consciousness Studies
(2022) · Journal of Consciousness Studies · doi:10.53765/20512201 · Cited by 6,852 · see citing works
Exaptation—a missing term in the science of form
Gould, S. J., & Vrba, E. S. (1982) · Paleobiology · doi:10.1017/s0094837300004310 · Cited by 5,136 · see citing works
Facing up to the problem of consciousness
Chalmers, D. J. (1996) · Toward a Science of Consciousness · doi:10.7551/mitpress/6860.003.0003 · Cited by 1,966 · see citing works
The major evolutionary transitions
Szathmáry, E., & Smith, J. M. (1995) · Nature · doi:10.1038/374227a0 · Cited by 1,095 · see citing works
Exaptation: A Crucial Tool for an Evolutionary Psychology
Gould, S. J. (1991) · Journal of Social Issues · doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01822.x · Cited by 523 · see citing works
The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul: Learning and the Origins of Consciousness
Ginsburg, S., & Jablonka, E. (2019) · doi:10.7551/mitpress/11006.001.0001 · Cited by 372 · see citing works
The evolution of associative learning: A factor in the Cambrian explosion
Ginsburg, S., & Jablonka, E. (2010) · Journal of Theoretical Biology · doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.06.017 · Cited by 184 · cited 1× · see citing works
“As Ginsburg and Jablonka extensively illustrated in the outstanding book The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul (2019), the explanatory frameworks required to explore this especially enigmatic side of the history of life are many.”
BackgroundUnlimited Associative Learning and the origins of consciousness: a primer and some predictions
Birch, J., Ginsburg, S., & Jablonka, E. (2020) · Biology & Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s10539-020-09772-0 · Cited by 149 · cited 1× · see citing works
“…consciousness in the history of life can be detected through the presence of UAL, a «domain-general, open-ended form of associative learning» ( 2022, 413) which represents the transition from a non-con-scious living world to a conscious one (albeit to a minimal extent) (Birch et al., 2020, 2021).”
BackgroundEvolutionary transitions in learning and cognition
Ginsburg, S., & Jablonka, E. (2021) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B · doi:10.1098/rstb.2019.0766 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
ROBINSON, Z., MALEY, C. J., & PICCININI, G. (2015) · Journal of the American Philosophical Association · doi:10.1017/apa.2014.10 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
Learning and the Evolution of Conscious Agents
Jablonka, E., & Ginsburg, S. (2022) · Biosemiotics · doi:10.1007/s12304-022-09501-y · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Exaptation in human evolution: how to test adaptive vs exaptive evolutionary hypotheses.
Pievani, T., & Serrelli, E. (2011) · PubMed · doi:10.4436/jass.89015 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Self-citationBirch, J. (2020) · Acta Biotheoretica · doi:10.1007/s10441-019-09363-x · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Roli, A., & Kauffman, S. A. (2020) · Entropy · doi:10.3390/e22101163 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
The learning-consciousness connection
Birch, J., Ginsburg, S., & Jablonka, E. (2021) · Biology & Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s10539-021-09802-5 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
The teleological transitions in evolution: A Gántian view
Ginsburg, S., & Jablonka, E. (2015) · Journal of Theoretical Biology · doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2015.04.007 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
There is Umwelt Before Consciousness, and Learning Transverses Both
Kull, K., & Favareau, D. F. (2022) · Biosemiotics · doi:10.1007/s12304-022-09513-8 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
1 of the 20 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Mikhalevich, I. (2025) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2024.0313 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Living and Experiencing: Response to Commentaries
Jablonka, E., & Ginsburg, S. (2023) · Biosemiotics · doi:10.1007/s12304-023-09549-4 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Explanation, scope, and perspective: sources of schismogenesis in consciousness science
Ellia, F., & Tsuchiya, N. (2026) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2026.03.005 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
New Biological Naturalism on Consciousness
Ogusa, Y., & Niikawa, T. (2024) · Journal of the Japan Association for Philosophy of Science · doi:10.4288/kisoron.51.1-2_115
- Authors
- Belardinelli, S., & Pievani, T.
- Affiliations
- University of Padua (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Belardinelli, Sofia
- Pievani, Telmo
- Venue
- Biosemiotics
- Published
- 2023-04-17
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 259-267
- ISSN
- 1875-1342 (ISSN-L)
- 1875-1350
- OpenAlex
- W4366210617
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 1.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Biosemiotics (publishedVersion)
- Padua Research Archive (University of Padova) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Philosophy and History of Science
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Keywords
- consciousness, function of consciousness, learning, evolutionary framework, interdisciplinary approach
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