The Leo Apostel Center

invites everyone to the 53st of its interdisciplinary seminars in the 
Foundations series. In this series CLEA invites scholars that are 
actively engaged in the research on the foundations of a particular 
discipline. Their lectures will always be directed to an 
interdisciplinary audience, and the discussions aim at confronting 
the foundations of the different disciplines.

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THE ROLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN HUMAN COGNITIVE EVOLUTION


by Prof. Dr Merlin Donald

(Department of Psychology and Education, Queen's University Kingston, 
Ontario, Canada)


Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 5 p.m. in room 031 (building B)
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Campus Oefenplein

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About the lecture

Like the concept of energy in physics, consciousness can be 
operationally defined in several valid ways. However, this fact does 
not destroy the unity of the underlying phenomenon, and the most 
effective way to define consciousness, while respecting its 
fundamental unity, is to take an inclusive, pragmatic approach. I 
have adopted such an approach in constructing an evolutionary theory 
of human consciousness. This theory situates every major component of 
human conscious capacity on a continuum, and assigns it a history, 
and an adaptive function.
     The structure of modern human consciousness was formed during the 
seven major stages of its evolution, with the first stages dating 
back to the emergence of the reptilian brain, and the latest 
originating largely in symbolic culture, where the individual mind 
becomes a component in a vast distributed knowledge-network, 
acquiring some of its most important tools from that network. I will 
summarize my evolutionary hypothesis very briefly at the beginning of 
my lecture, and then try to explain the behavioral, neural and 
cognitive evidence supporting it. Finally, I will propose that 
expanded conscious capacity was the leading-edge adaptation that 
defined the human mind, playing a causal role in the later emergence 
of language and symbolic thought.


About the speaker

Merlin Donald is Professor of Psychology and Education at Queen's 
University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He obtained his 
undergraduate training in Philosophy at Loyola College in Montreal. 
He studied both Philosophy and Psychology at the graduate level, 
receiving his Ph.D in Neuropsychology in 1968 from McGill University. 
He has been a visiting scholar at University College, London, Harvard 
University, The University of California at San Diego, and Stanford 
University. He was awarded a Killam Research Fellowship from 1994-96, 
and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1995.
       He has published many scientific articles, and is the author of 
a best-selling academic book, "Origins of the Modern Mind: Three 
stages in the evolution of culture and cognition" (Harvard University 
Press, 1991). He has recently completed a second book, "A Mind So 
Rare: The evolution of human consciousness" (W.W. Norton, April 
2001). He is currently studying the cognitive implications of modern 
symbolic technology and distributed knowledge networks.



The presentation with questions will last about an hour. Afterwards, 
an hour or more is reserved for an in-depth, group discussion of the 
topic.
More info at the CLEA office: phone 02-644 26 77 or via the Web-page: 
http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/