On 8/26/2015 3:06 AM, Peter Sas wrote:
Personally my brain stack overflows at about 3 or 4 levels of being aware that I am
aware that ... I am aware. I think it would require infinite memory to truly be aware of
an infinite number of steps in such a recursive relation.
Maybe the infinite hierarchy doesn't have to be thought/remembered in full. Royce notes
that the simple intention to be completely self-aware is enough: the infinite hierarchy
is logically implied in the intention. Oskar Becker has a slightly different approach:
he says that as soon as one notices the endlessness of 1, 2, 3.... etc. one is already
beyond the natural numbers and has reached the first transfinite ordinal (small omega=N)
which collects all the natural numbers into one set. And then of course one can
continue: omega+1, omega+2...etc. Noting the endlessness of that series one has grasped
the next transfinite ordinal (omegaxomega). And so on... Becker notes that Cantor's
generation principles can be recast as principles inherent in the structure of
self-awareness. I think that's a strong point.
On the other hand, if there is an absolute self-awareness grounding reality as such,
then maybe it must have infinite memory... I don't know, this account is still too
undeveloped to say anything more specific in it.
What about when a being is not contemplating its self-awareness and merely living in the
moment? Is it not conscious at those times?
In my view one cannot live in the present without self-consciousness.
I'd say that "living in the moment" means NOT being conscious of the self. I participate
in two sports, tennis and motorcyle racing. Both require complete attention on the sport,
with none left over for self. I think that's one of the attractions of sports; they're
like a kind of meditation that forces you to "live in the moment".
Brent
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