  Julian Jaynes's profound humanitarian convictions not only prevented him from
going to war, but would have prevented him from ever kicking a dog. Yet
according to his theory, not only are language-less dogs unconscious, but so
too were the speaking/hearing Greeks in the Bicameral Era, when they heard
gods' voices telling them what to do rather than thinking for themselves. I
argue that to be conscious is to be able to feel, and that all mammals (and
probably lower vertebrates and invertebrates too) feel, hence are conscious.
Julian Jaynes's brilliant analysis of our concepts of consciousness
nevertheless keeps inspiring ever more inquiry and insights into the age-old
mind/body problem and its relation to cognition and language.
