What It Feels Like To Hear Voices: Fond Memories of Julian Jaynes
arXiv Preprint Archive August 26, 2008 Stevan Harnad
Consciousness is argued to be the capacity to feel, making all mammals—and likely lower vertebrates and invertebrates—conscious, contrary to Julian Jaynes's theory that denied consciousness to language-less dogs and to ancient Greeks who heard gods' voices. Jaynes's humanitarian convictions prevented him from harming animals, yet his theory posits that those without introspective self-awareness, including bicameral-era humans, were not conscious. Despite this disagreement, Jaynes's analysis of consciousness continues to inspire inquiry into the mind/body problem and its links to cognition and language.