?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.title=The+Privatization+of+Sensation&rft.creator=Humphrey%2C+Nicholas&rft.subject=Animal+Cognition&rft.subject=Evolution&rft.subject=Cognitive+Psychology&rft.subject=Evolutionary+Psychology&rft.subject=Perceptual+Cognitive+Psychology&rft.subject=Philosophy+of+Mind&rft.description=It+is+the+ambition+of+evolutionary+psychology+to+explain+how+the+basic+features+of+human+mental+life+came+to+be+selected+because+of+their+contribution+to+biological+survival.+Counted+among+the+most+basic+must+be+the+subjective+qualities+of+conscious+sensory+experience%3A+the+felt+redness+we+experience+on+looking+at+a+ripe+tomato%2C+the+felt+saltiness+on+tasting+an+anchovy%2C+the+felt+pain+on+being+pricked+by+a+thorn.+But%2C+as+many+theorists+acknowledge%2C+with+these+qualia%2C+the+ambition+of+evolutionary+psychology+may+have+met+its+match.+Everyone+agrees+that+a+trait+can+only+contribute+to+an+organism's+biological+survival+in+so+far+as+it+operates+in+the+public+domain.+Yet+almost+everyone+also+agrees+that+the+subjective+quality+of+sensory+experience+is+(at+least+for+all+practical+purposes)+private+and+without+external+influence.+Then%2C+maybe+we+must+either+concede+that+the+subjective+quality+of+sensations+cannot+after+all+have+been+determined+by+selection+(even+if+this+is+theoretically+depressing)+or+else+demonstrate+that+the+quality+of+sensations+is+not+as+private+as+it+seems+to+be+(even+if+this+is+intuitively+unconvincing).+No.+I+believe+neither+of+these+solutions+to+the+puzzle+is+in+fact+the+right+one.+I+argue+instead+that+the+truth+is+that+the+quality+of+sensations+has+indeed+been+shaped+by+selection+in+the+past%2C+despite+the+fact+that+it+is+today+effectively+private.+And+this+situation+has+come+about+as+a+result+of+a+remarkable+evolutionary+progression%2C+whereby+the+primitive+activity+of+sensing+slowly+became+%22privatized%22+-+that+is+to+say%2C+removed+from+the+domain+of+overt+public+behavior+and+transformed+into+a+mental+activity+that+is+now%2C+in+humans%2C+largely+if+not+exclusively+internal+to+the+subject's+mind.&rft.publisher=MIT%2C+Cambridge%2C+Ma.&rft.contributor=Heyes%2C+Celia&rft.contributor=Huber%2C+Ludwig&rft.date=2000&rft.type=Book+Chapter&rft.type=NonPeerReviewed&rft.format=text%2Fhtml&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F1077%2F1%2Fsensationmit.htm&rft.identifier=++Humphrey%2C+Nicholas++(2000)+The+Privatization+of+Sensation.++%5BBook+Chapter%5D+++++&rft.relation=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F1077%2F