What views on the function of consciousness are there? CH.14 Two central questions are: (1) when does consciousness arise during human development ?, and (2) which contemporary beings are conscious? Pan psychologists believe that consciousness is not an all-or-nothing principle, but develops in different sizes. They believe that consciousness was already present before the evolution took place. Humphrey states that consciousness is an 'emergent property'. This means that the consciousness stands for a combination of factors. He also stated that consciousness is a 'surface feature' that influences natural selection. He states that within the brain there is a kind of internal eye ('inner eye') that gives an image of the brain activity of a person himself (and therefore not of the outside world). A consequence of this theory is that only intelligent and social organisms can have a consciousness. Many evolution theories speak about the relationship between natural selection and genes. Evolutionary processes that act on genes also work on all kinds of other forms of 'replicators' (which genes are an example of). Dawkins also calls this universal Darwinism.How can the consciousness of animals be investigated? CH.15 There are two views on the question of whether animals also have a consciousness: (1) the view that only people have a consciousness, and (2) the view that many (animal) species are physically similar and that therefore they all have to be aware to have. To test whether animals are self-aware, a mirror test can be used. It is then examined whether animals can recognize themselves in the mirror. However, there are two problems with this test: (1) the is not fair for all animal species, for example for animals that can not touch their own face, and (2) most monkeys experience it as threatening when stared at them. Part of our consciousness is that we have beliefs, desires and mental states and that we also attribute...