New insights into the function of feelings

Common sense is adamant that feelings cause behaviour. We withdraw our hands from hot stoves because it hurts. Isn't this obvious? But what if common sense is just wrong? This project advances the novel hypothesis that whatever the function of feelings like pain is, it is not to cause behaviour but to explain it, integrating behaviour into an organism's cognitive model of itself and its capacities. If correct, this hypothesis has profound implications for consciousness research and how we think philosophically about the mind-body problem and rational action. It will better direct researchers working with animal models, artificial intelligence, and brain organoids, or on impaired states of consciousness, to the indicators of sentience.