The Strange Order of Things Explains Consciousness

In The Strange Order of Things, Antonio Damasio has done it again. The brilliant UCLA-based neuroscientist who dreamed up the Somatic Marker Hypothesis manages to bring us one step closer to understanding what consciousness is and why. Rather than wading through the muck of the philosophical literature about free will, as Robert Sapolsky has done, among many others, Damasio uses his deft comprehension of the discipline of philosophy to refine his thinking in and around his lab.

From this lab have come many exciting breakthroughs, but The Strange Order of Things is a level higher than any that has come before. In addition to providing an account of consciousness that is largely responsible for inspiring my own view, Damasio shows us the power of cognitive science by building layers of understanding that reach all the way from microorganisms to cultures and societies of human beings — first, metabolism in individual cells; then cooperation between these, then feelings, and by now we have an incentive for evolution to develop a central nervous system with a virtual “screen” upon which consciousness features. Nervous systems solve the same basic problem set that individual microorganisms solve, but at a much higher level, depending upon the type of organism and nervous system. This review will provide the reader with a closer look at the deep cognitive…