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Concept
Damasio's theory of consciousness
Summary
Developed in his (1999) book, "The Feeling of What Happens", Antonio Damasio's theory of consciousness proposes that consciousness arises from the interactions between the brain, the body, and the environment. According to this theory, consciousness is not a unitary experience, but rather emerges from the dynamic interplay between different brain regions and their corresponding bodily states. Damasio argues that our conscious experiences are influenced by the emotional responses that are generated by our body's interactions with the environment, and that these emotional responses play a crucial role in shaping our conscious experience. This theory emphasizes the importance of the body and its physiological processes in the emergence of consciousness.
Damasio's three layered theory is based on a hierarchy of stages, with each stage building upon the last. The most basic representation of the organism is referred to as the Protoself, Core Consciousness, and Extended Consciousness. Damasio's approach to explaining the development of consciousness relies on three notions: emotion, feeling, and feeling a feeling. Emotions are a collection of unconscious neural responses that give rise to feelings. Emotions are complex reactions to stimuli that cause observable external changes in the organism. A feeling arises when the organism becomes aware of the changes it is experiencing as a result of external or internal stimuli.
According to Damasio's theory of consciousness, the protoself is the first stage in the hierarchical process of consciousness generation. Shared by many species, the protoself is the most basic representation of the organism, and it arises from the brain's constant interaction with the body. The protoself is an unconscious process that creates a "map" of the body's physiological state, which is then used by the brain to generate conscious experience. This "map" is constantly updated as the brain receives new stimuli from the body, and it forms the foundation for the development of more complex forms of consciousness.
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