[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
I'm going with Pinker on this. Animals use their brains to predict
their environment. For social animals, a very important part of their
environment is other members of the social group, so the brains of
social animals attempt to predict the behavior of the other members.
But the behavior of the others depends on the behavior of the self...so
the social animal begins to model its own behavior. Rather than just
acting, it becomes aware of its actions.
This also Dennett's belief (he and Pinker are buds of a sort). An animal
wishes to predict the behavior of another member of its species. It makes a
mental model of that animal and refines it. Part of that model is the notion
that that animal is modelling the first animals behavior. So the first
animal makes a model of its own behavior to bette predict the behavior of the
second animal. At some point (probably when animal can think symbolically)
the first animal realizes that it has constructed a model of its own behavior
and that is self awareness.
