>> On 23 Sep 2014, at 10:00 am, Russell Standish <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 05:07:07PM +1000, Kim Jones wrote:
>>
>> Are we not conflating slightly (to be) conscious - the fact of being aware
>> and sensate; experiencing "being" as it were.....with "consciousness" that
>> woolly philosophical football? I think even in comman usage we don't do
>> that. I am conscious of this or that. My consciousness is kind of my whole
>> psyche (whatever that is - could be the whole universe or a lotus blossum or
>> whatever).
>
> Hi Kim, I was wondering if you could elaborate on what you think the
> distinction is? I, of course, conflate consciousness with the
> experience of "being" all the time. I was just wondering why you think
> there is a distinction?
The distinction is perhaps slightly more than semantic. Consciousness is a
common referent to something structured about our minds (the "psyche") whereas
"to be conscious" is the simple fact of being in the "on" state. You cannot
however be conscious of your liver function under normal circumstances or of
the enzymatic processes going on in your pancreas although it might be argued
that such things may have an impact on consciousness which has a history and
even memories, some of which belong to you, some of which belong to the
collective memory of the entire human race ("archetypes") concerning which you
may never be strictly conscious.
Consciousness is more the name of a process than the simple base state of
awareness of being. Consciousness involves things like becoming and implies the
possibility of change over time. Consciousness is "raised" or "altered" by
things experienced. It includes the unconscious, which is affecting our
conscious minds continually and over which we have little power to effect
change. I think this is perhaps an expanded version of what you are saying;
they can exist side by side.
Kim
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