Is Consciousness an Adaptation?

Philosophers who inquire about whether consciousness is an adaptation often have a slightly different question in their sights. The question they want to answer is what consciousness does, and they reason that if we can explain why consciousness came to be—or why human beings (and our ancestors) came to be conscious—then we can hope to explain what consciousness does—or what consciousness does in us, at any rate. ¹ In particular, the thought goes, if consciousness was selected for by natural selection—if consciousness is an adaptation—then there must be something that consciousness “did” to increase the fitness of its bearers. And that, we can infer, is what consciousness does. So answering the question of whether consciousness is an adaptation is instrumental to figuring out what consciousness does, or does in creatures like us.