Event overview
In this Whitehead Lecture, Nicholas Humphrey (Emeritus Professor, LSE) proposes that human consciousness is both an evolutionary cognitive faculty and a fantasy.
In English we use the word "invention" in two ways. First, to mean a new device or process developed by experimentation, and designed to fulfil a practical goal. Second, to mean a mental fabrication, especially a falsehood, developed by art, and designed to please or persuade.
In this talk - drawing on his research on mountain gorillas - Professor Nicholas Humphrey argues that human consciousness is an invention in both respects. First, it is a cognitive faculty, evolved by natural selection, designed to help us make sense of ourselves and our surroundings. But then, second, it is a fantasy, conjured up by the brain, designed to change the value we place on our own existence.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
Nicholas Humphrey is a theoretical psychologist who has migrated from neurophysiology, through animal behaviour to evolutionary psychology and the study of consciousness.
He conducted research on mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey in Rwanda, he was the first to demonstrate the existence of “blindsight” after brain damage in monkeys, he proposed the celebrated theory of the “social function of intellect”, and he has recently explained the evolutionary basis of the placebo effect.
He has held positions at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and is now emeritus professor at the LSE. Honours include the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, the Pufendorf medal and the International Mind and Brain Prize.
About the Whitehead Lecture Series
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Mar 2017 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm |
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