6 EVOLUTION OF LIFE 1.4- 



remember that in speaking of all these matters we are using the words 

 of a conventional code, trying with them to convey information to 

 our fellows or somehow to influence them. Then we shall stop 

 asking such questions as 'what is consciousness ?' substituting 'what 

 sort of information does he transmit when he says "I am conscious" ?' 



This will help with the particular aspect of the problem that con- 

 cerns us here. In trying to define what we mean by the 'life' of an 

 animal should we assume that, in addition to the actions of its body, 

 which we describe, there are also actions of some other entity, its 

 'mind' ? It is true that we should feel that any description of our own 

 lives that left out 'awareness' was ludicrously incomplete. Since we 

 have evolved from animals, so the argument runs, why should we 

 deny that they have some form of 'consciousness' ? This seems logical 

 but overlooks that the essential feature of statements such as T am 

 aware that I am alive' or T feel pain' is that they are part of the 

 means by which man, the communicating animal, controls and 

 influences his environment. Statements are part of human life, just 

 as swinging from branches is a feature of the life of monkeys and 

 flying of birds. It will at once be objected that these animals also 

 communicate, but the point is that communication must be considered 

 as a part of the life system of each animal, like respiration, locomotion, 

 or reproduction. 



This leaves us with the baffling problem of finding words with 

 which to describe the describing system itself. Where indeed can we 

 find a sure basis from which to start? Here, I think, we can only 

 proceed by humbly admitting both ignorance and inadequacy. In 

 our language we have a communication system with which we can 

 convey to each other incomparably more information than passes 

 between other animals. Our system is improving every year, but it is 

 still grossly inadequate to describe the more subtle features of the 

 world, and especially of living things. We may show the greatest 

 respect for the depth of these mysteries by recognizing that they are 

 still too great for us to describe in our simple language. To provide a 

 good description of all the marvellous features of the life of a man or 

 an animal requires a complicated and subtle terminology, for which 

 we are striving. In pre-scientific language all such problems are 

 simplified by supposing that the actions of any system are produced 

 by some agent rather like a human being that resides within it. Thus 

 a child says that the clouds move 'because they want to'. So we are 

 accustomed to say that the body moves because it is guided by 'the 

 mind'. This may indeed be the best way of speaking for some 



