Metazoa : animal life and the birth of the mind

Metazoa Animal life and the birth of the mind

Peter Godfrey-Smith

Book - 2020

"Dip below the ocean's surface and you are soon confronted by forms of life that could not seem more foreign to our own: sea sponges, soft corals, and serpulid worms, whose rooted bodies, intricate geometry, and flower-like appendages are more reminiscent of plant life or even architecture than anything recognizably animal. Yet these creatures are our cousins. As fellow members of the animal kingdom--the Metazoa--they can teach us much about the evolutionary origins of not only our bodies, but also our minds. In his acclaimed 2016 book, Other Minds, the philosopher and scuba diver Peter Godfrey-Smith explored the mind of the octopus--the closest thing to an intelligent alien on Earth. In Metazoa, Godfrey-Smith expands his inquiry ...to animals at large, investigating the evolution of subjective experience with the assistance of far-flung species. As he delves into what it feels like to perceive and interact with the world as other life-forms do, Godfrey-Smith shows that the appearance of the animal body well over half a billion years ago was a profound innovation that set life upon a new path. In accessible, riveting prose, he charts the ways that subsequent evolutionary developments--eyes that track, for example, and bodies that move through and manipulate the environment--shaped the subjective lives of animals. Following the evolutionary paths of a glass sponge, soft coral, banded shrimp, octopus, and fish, then moving onto land and the world of insects, birds, and primates like ourselves, Metazoa gathers their stories together in a way that bridges the gap between mind and matter, addressing one of the most vexing philosophical problems: that of consciousness." -- Amazon.com.

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Subjects
Metazoa.
Consciousness.
Perception.
Evolution (Biology)
Published
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2020.
Language
English
Main Author
Peter Godfrey-Smith (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
x, 336 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-319) and index.
ISBN
9780374207946
  • 1. Protozoa
  • Down the Steps
  • Matter, Life, and Mind
  • The Gap
  • 2. The Glass Sponge
  • Towers
  • Cell and Storm
  • The Taming of Charge
  • Metazoa
  • Light Through Glass
  • 3. The Ascent of Soft Coral
  • Ascent
  • In Search of the First Animal Actions
  • The Animal Path
  • Avalon to Nama
  • Traction
  • 4. The One-Armed Shrimp
  • Maestro
  • The Cambrian
  • Animal Sensing
  • An Inquisitive Crab
  • Another Path
  • The Decorator
  • Goodbye
  • 5. The Origin of Subjects
  • Subjects, Agents, Selves
  • Qualia and Other Puzzles
  • Beyond the Senses
  • Night Dive
  • 6. The Octopus
  • Rampage
  • When Cephalopods Ruled
  • Lines of Control
  • Octopus Watching
  • Octopus and Sharks
  • Integration and Experience
  • Down Among the Stars
  • 7. Kingfish
  • Power
  • History of Fishes
  • Swim
  • The Presence of Water
  • Other Fish
  • Rhythms and Fields
  • River Riven
  • 8. On Land
  • Hothouse
  • Leaders Once Again
  • Sense, Pain, Emotion
  • Varieties
  • Plant Life
  • 9. Fins, Legs, Wings
  • Difficult Times
  • Our Branch of the Tree
  • The Roles of Land and Sea
  • 10. Put Together by Degrees
  • 1993
  • Elsewhere
  • By Degrees
  • Consequences
  • The Shape of Mind
  • Notes
  • Acknowledgments
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

Philosopher of science Godfrey-Smith presents a follow-up to his acclaimed book on octopus intelligence, Other Minds (2016), investigating many more animal species in search of the origins of the mind, what consciousness is, and what makes intelligence. Concentrating mainly on animals he encountered while scuba diving, Godfrey-Smith begins with what makes life--intricate structures on an almost unbelievably tiny scale--but points out that discerning whether animals have experiences as humans define the term and a sense of mind can be seen as arbitrary and subject to the observer. His aim is to make sense of why and how animals feel and experience as part of his stated commitment to an underlying unity in nature. Beginning with the protozoa, Godfrey-Smith examines increasingly complex life forms, such as sponges, corals, shrimp, octopuses, and fish. He finishes with "Fins, Legs, Wings," in which he compares the roles of land, air, and sea on the organisms that live there. With extensive notes, this combination of biology and philosophy is the perfect primer for readers interested in the science of consciousness.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Godfrey-Smith (Other Minds), a University of Sydney history and philosophy of science professor, delivers a rich look at the existence of consciousness in the animal kingdom. Consciousness, he posits, is intrinsically linked to the concept of "subjective experience"--whether an animal exhibits a sense of "point of view self and other" in its "dealings with the world"--and his question is which species can be determined to have the latter trait, and which function on instinct. Godfrey-Smith doesn't provide a simple answer, but he does argue that many more species are probably sentient than previously thought, including some insects and crustaceans, while asking how this might "change our behavior toward animals and other living things." His evolutionary approach is rich in biological detail, such as when he compares human brains with octopuses' distributed neural network in their brain and arms, and nicely complemented by vivid details of the animals he encounters while scuba diving, including a one-armed shrimp and a hermit crab that emits a stinging "mass of bright-orange streamers, like tiny fireworks" when approached. Godfrey-Smith's passion both for the philosophical subject he tackles and the organisms he visits and discusses comes through clearly in his fascinating work. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, Wylie Agency. (Nov.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

Combining science, philosophy, and his own observations gleaned from "watery hours" spent scuba diving, Godfrey-Smith (history, philosophy of science, Univ. of Sydney; Theory and Reality) examines the origins of animal consciousness. In his acclaimed work, Other Minds, the author focused on octopuses; here, the book's "tentacular form" shows him considering several animal groups as he investigates the puzzle of how subjective awareness came to exist. This is no dry, academic treatise; Godfrey-Smith takes care to keep the work accessible by summarizing key points, explaining the work of relevant scientists and philosophers, and punctuating the text with memorable facts. The book is enlivened by the wit and affection with which the author often regards his subjects of study. Arthropods seem to hold particular charm. He writes, for example, of the arthropod way of evolving ("when in doubt, add some legs") or the mantis shrimp's odd appearance ("a head festooned with golf clubs and party lights"). An astonishing range of creatures are considered and a fascinating argument advanced about how evolutionary innovations can give rise to animal minds. VERDICT This is popular science writing at its best, offering uncanny reach to a swath of readers with varying degrees of interest in evolutionary biology and philosophy of mind.--Robert Eagan, Windsor P.L., Ont.

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