The Adaptive Advantages Of Higher-Order Consciousness Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 133-5):

Primary consciousness provides the ability to determine by internal criteria the salience of patterns among multiple parallel signals arising in complex environments. That salience is largely but not completely determined by the previous history and learning of the individual animal. Higher-order consciousness adds socially constructed selfhood to this picture of biological individuality. The freeing of parts of conscious thought from the constraints of an immediate present and the increased richness of social communication allow for the anticipation of future states and for planned behaviour. With that ability come the abilities to model the world, to make explicit comparisons and to weigh outcomes; through such comparisons comes the possibility of reorganising plans. Obviously, these capabilities have adaptive value.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, it is language that provides higher-order consciousness, of which 'socially constructed self-hood' is its interpersonal dimension.  It is language that enables 'the anticipation of future states' and 'planned behaviour'.  It is the ideational dimension of language that constitutes the potential to construe experience as meaning ('model the world') and reconstrue such meaning ('make explicit comparisons and to weigh outcomes [in] reorganising plans').