Seminar Series in Analytic Philosophy 2025-26: Session 1

The Octopus and Consciousness: What Can We Learn?

Sidney Carls-Diamante (LanCog, University of Lisbon)

26 September 2025, 16:00 (Lisbon Time – WET)

Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa

Sala Mattos Romão [C201.J] (Departamento de Filosofia)

Abstract: This talk presents philosophical insights that arise from empirical research on octopuses, focusing on those significant for the scientific study of consciousness. The results presented are the outcome of integrating empirical findings about the octopus nervous system with philosophical theories about the mind. Due to the extent of decentralization of the octopus nervous system, and the ensuing anatomical distribution of cognitive substrates and routines, octopus consciousness may not exhibit a unified structure. This possibility is significant, as it challenges the received view that where consciousness exists, it is unified (i.e. what is experienced by the subject is a single, integrated field of consciousness). Consequently, the need arises for theorists to reevaluate presuppositions and other commonly held notions about the mind, such as the association of complex intelligence and behaviour with unified consciousness, or that the “default” or “normal” structure of consciousness is that it is unified. The broader significance of philosophical investigations such as these is that they address the issue of how studies of cognition and the mind can expand their explanatory toolkit to better accommodate forms of intelligence that are not as familiar as those of well-studied vertebrates.

This event is funded by Portuguese national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., within the project UID/00310, Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa.