The Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC)

Abstract This chapter presents the biological foundations for the authors’ position that life and sentience are coterminous, that all (and only) living organisms have a palpable internal, felt, experiential life, that they have valenced sensory inputs, and make appropriate determinations about the impact of the events that occur around and within them—that they are conscious beings. This position is contrasted with others that assume that, at a minimum, a nervous system is a prerequisite for mental life. These models, which have come to be viewed as the Standard Model in the field of consciousness studies, have in the authors’ perspective been counterproductive. Arguments are developed that lay bare the reasons why the Cellular Basis of Consciousness position provides a more effective explanatory framework and invites what will certainly be more productive research programmes. The chapter also lays out the overall framework within which the model is developed and how this book will provide the necessary empirical, theoretical, and philosophical foundations for it. The chapter ends with an overview of the issues to be discussed in the rest of the book.